


The Siren of Dorado

by CaptainRivaini



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Gen, M/M, Non-Human Widowmaker, Other, Slow Burn, Team as Family, The siren Au that nobody asked for but got, siren au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-10
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2018-09-16 15:22:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 31,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9277856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainRivaini/pseuds/CaptainRivaini
Summary: “We’re supposed to be stopping LumeriCo from taking over the city! Not looking after the Siren of Dorado who just happens to be blue, has talons and threatened to eat us if we didn’t put her back immediately!”Sombra and Gabriel team up to save Dorado. The plan is simple.1) Break into LumeriCo2) Kick ass3) Do NOT get eaten by the Siren of Dorado while doing step 1 or 2





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> shrugs. go w/ it mateys.

“Why are we doing this again?” Raiz asked.  
  


Gabriel Reyes sighed and threw the last of his spray can at the man with little force. It bounced off the neon skull plastered over his face and dropped to his feet, the clatter sounding throughout the alley they were positioned in. It only made Raiz complain and rub at his head but it was enough to make Gabriel smile, standing back to admire his work.  
  


The crimson red of ‘LOS MUERTOS’ branded over an advertisement of Vishkar Corporation was a sight to behold. By tomorrow night his art would either be faded or gone but it didn’t matter. Tonight it was enough.  
  


“Let’s pull back,” he said, grasping Raiz by the shoulder to lead him out of the alley.  
  


“Okay but really…” Raiz started to stammer and already Gabriel could feel a sigh incoming. “Like…why aren’t we at LumeriCo with the rest of them?”  
  


That was the problem since he and Sombra had joined up with these idiots. They asked too many questions and sure, it was their right, they had been around a lot longer than he and Sombra had and yes, technically they were just members too and nobody special but…  
  


Nobody could hack like Sombra or shoot a shotgun as fast and skilled as he could. Los Muertos needed them more than they realized.  
  


Still, the man next to him was not a man. He was a boy and if travelling the world with his old team had taught him anything it was always to treat his fellow teammate with respect – even if you didn’t necessarily feel like it.  
  


“Because, Raiz, we can’t go in guns blazing,” he explained as slowly as possible, “besides we need to distract them as much as possible. If Sombra’s intel is right they’ll be having a meeting with another organization tomorrow, a big one. If we distract them tonight then tomorrow we’ll strike because…” He trailed off.  
  


“Because…they won’t expect another attack so quickly?”  
  


Gabriel grinned and thumped him on the shoulder. “You’re getting there, kid.” He failed to mention that they were also out here doing petty vandalism because Diego, their leader, had decided that if they got caught by the goons of LumeriCo that were out doing surveillance, well, at least it wasn’t Sombra and the rest of them. They were just expendable like that.  
  


Together they walked through the back alleys of Dorado in reasonable silence. If Sombra and the others did what they needed tonight then Gabriel could expect her to be back at their apartment by midnight. If not then, well. He would rather not think about it.  
  


He paid close attention to the water’s edge when they took a shortcut through the docks and pulled Raiz away whenever he got too close. The kid thought it was funny but he sadly lacked the humour when it came to the Siren of Dorado, a merciless creature that only showed up at night to lure young bachelors into the sea and devour them whole. It was a well-known creature even to the omnics, whom Gabriel had seen once or twice sit at the shore and wait patiently for the siren to come. Most of the time they, unlike their human counterparts, lasted the night with only stories of a brief glimpse of the siren in particular. Sombra had joked that maybe she just wasn’t into them. He on the other hand, had other ideas…  
  


Maybe her call didn’t work on them. Either way he hadn’t stayed long enough to find out.  
  


Mind brought back to the present he moved Raiz away from the edge of the dock again with a grunt. “Seriously kid, you don’t know what’s in there.”  
  


Raiz rolled his eyes. “Yeah, sure I do. Sombra was scaring me about it the other day.” He raised his hands and curled them until his fingers resembled claws. “The Siren of Dorado! Temptress of the sea! Lures men to their death and then crushes them in her purple talons!”  
  


Gabriel scoffed and for the final time pulled Raiz from the water’s edge. “You need to stop listening to Sombra. She’s full of shit.”  
  


By the time midnight arrived they were back in the old warehouse just outside of Dorado’s walls. It had once belonged to a fishing company but with LumeriCo taking over most of the city’s infrastructure with how much space it needed it hadn’t taken long for it to go bust. But as usual when it came to LumeriCo they found other options, and thus left an empty warehouse rich for the taking.  
  


It wouldn’t last for long. They had safe houses inside Dorado that were much more secure but there was some sick satisfaction in having their headquarters in a place that LumeriCo hadn’t had the chance to spoil just yet.  
  


They reported in to Diego who looked as interested as Raiz had been in vandalizing the streets in the first place.  
  


“Fine. Job well done, what, you want a fucking medal or something? Where’s Sombra and the rest?” Diego sat on top of a steel crate, a king with a mediocre throne that Gabriel would love to push the fucker off. But no, he had to be nice. That was what Sombra had said anyway.  
  


Speaking of…  
  


With a loud bang of the steel doors that shut them off from the rest of the world Gabriel turned and saw the huge group that had followed Sombra out to mess with LumeriCo’s security had returned. With Sombra at the head of it. Because of course, she always was.  
  


Raiz let out a cheer and ignoring Diego’s glare at him to remain put, ran off to join his friends who had now decided to lift Sombra up above their heads and cheer.  
  


Gabriel caught her eye and did what he always did whenever she was involved. Frowned and shook his head. Sombra replied with a wink and a finger-gun that made him growl under his breath.  
  


When the rest had deposited Sombra beside him to address Diego she nudged him with a shoulder covered with the typical Los Muertos neon tattoos. She had taken to the look more than him, he knew this, but the sight of it on her still made his stomach feel tight and nerves to take a hold of him. There was a reason, after all, that they preferred her to him.  
  


Sombra could make anyone feel like they mattered if she tried hard enough. He on the other hand just couldn’t be fucking bothered with the pretence.  
  


She mockingly saluted him and whispered, “aye Gabe, how did it go?”  
  


Before he could answer Diego (King Fucker as Gabriel was now calling him) smacked the crate he sat on with his palm, calling attention from them and the rest of Los Muertos who had taken up behind them, kneeling just as they were.  
  


“Sombra,” Diego called and she stood and smiled brightly at him, even did that little bow Gabriel knew King Fucker loved. “I take it the disruption of LumeriCo’s security systems was successful?”  
  


“Oh it was definitely successful,” Sombra replied with a grin. “Tomorrow there’ll be more security but because I’ve managed to grab all their codes right here…” She waved a hand with a wild hoot of the crowd behind her, showed the pink interface of plentiful amounts of numbers in a holographic image. If Diego’s smile was anything to go by, it was more than a mission well done for her. “And with those…we’ll be able to slip right in and expose Guillermo before he can even realize we’ve done it. Simple, no?”  
  


Gabriel made a noise that voiced his disagreement. There was a catch of course, because there always was one when Sombra was involved.  
  


Diego of course didn’t seem to see that. Or give one shit about it.  
  


He rubbed his stubby, sausage fingers over his chin and cocked his head at the both of them. Gabriel could see the clockwork inside that ridiculously small brain of his working overtime at trying to process his next move – he may have helped him out, but King Fucker had a way about him that made Gabriel bristle at the best of times. If he wanted help then he would have to look for it with someone else, someone more willing.  
  


Someone like Sombra.  
  


“So,” and of course she was ready to fill in the blanks. It was a wonder Los Muertos got anywhere without her. “I was thinking that all I would need to sneak in would just be another person. Like…” Sombra made a show of looking over at the crowd behind them, her finger tapping her chin as though she was truly putting serious effort into thinking about who to pick to accompany her. The fools actually believed it too.  
  


Gabriel looked up at her from his knelt position and rolled his eyes. “Get on with it, niña.”  
  


Sombra’s violet-gloved fingers wrapped around his shoulder like a python, pulling him to his feet with surprising strength.  
  


“Gabe, I need Gabe with me.”  
  


On his end Gabriel tried his best to look surprised. Diego met his sheepish shrug of his shoulders with a glare that made him stand just that little bit straighter and exhale heavily to make him seem all that much bigger. If King Fucker had a problem then…  
  


Diego surprised with him only sighing. “Again? What about the others?”  
  


Behind them Gabriel could see Raiz and his blue spiked mohawk stand out from the rest of the crowd. He even placed his arm up as if Sombra was a teacher and he a student, eagerly waiting to be picked to demonstrate.  
  


Sombra glanced over and Gabriel could see the smirk on her face and the way her eyes lit up.  
  


He grabbed her by the elbow and spun her back around. “I’ll do the job,” he told Diego, stony-faced. “We work better together than with anyone else. We’ll go in quickly and quietly. By the time we’re done LumeriCo will be in too deep to back away from the media backlash that’ll follow and that’s…” He made it a point to not waver from Diego’s gaze. If there was one thing he had learned in coming to Dorado it was to make sure you didn’t show weakness – ever. “When you come in. You’ll demand Guillermo to resign and with the evidence piling against him, he’ll have no choice.”  
  


Sombra grinned and smacked her hands together as though she was wiping away grime from her palms. “Easy peasy, eh amigo?”  
  


Diego rested his chin in the palm of his hand and looked down at them from his crate. He at least seemed appeased, even if it was only for a few moments.  
  


“You truly think it will be that easy?” He muttered, more to himself than anything.   
  


“I do.” Sombra replied and Gabriel supposed it was the sincere look on her features that made Diego finally nod and wave the rest of them away. His features were gaunt, his eyes hollowed and empty in a way that Gabriel recognized of a man whom had nothing to lose.  
  


He almost felt sorry for King Fucker until he and Sombra were out of the door and he called his name.  
  


Diego exposed his teeth at him, a dark look in his eyes. “Remember Gabriel, I’m the one who gives the orders. Not you.”  
  


Gabriel bit his cheek and with a growl he turned and walked away.

 

* * *

 

 Sombra caught up with Gabriel at their apartment just as the church’s bell struck 1am. He had sped off immediately after the Los Muertos meeting and hadn’t bothered to look back. She had taken that as a sign he wanted to be alone.

  
So she had done just that, but fuck. She was tired. She hadn’t slept properly for so long and she could deal with his brooding, as long as he did it quiet enough so she could fall asleep.

  
When she arrived home she found him shovelling Honey Hoops into his mouth, a glass of milk by his bowl and his shotguns right next to it.

  
Sombra snorted. “You look like something out of an indie action movie.”

  
Gabriel glanced at her, milk dripping from his stubble onto the barrel of his guns. “Yeah? What would that make you then?”

  
“Hacker girl, duh.” Sombra scoffed. She took the chair opposite him at their rickety old table and leant her head on the surface with an exaggerated groan that made Gabriel chuckle. “Wow, you _are_ in a good mood for someone who wouldn’t mind putting a bullet in between Diego’s eyes.”  
  


The clink of Gabriel’s spoon in the bowl made her glance up. He was smiling – good news then. “Am I that obvious?”  
  


“Pretty obvious, Gabe.”  
  


“He shouldn’t be leading us, he has no damn idea what his doing. I don’t know why we don’t just do this all by ourselves anyway.”  
  


Sombra answered by throwing her own gun on the table and watched as Gabriel flinched. She forgot that he was picky like that, but it was hard not to fall into old habits. She hadn’t roomed with someone for this long before – half the time she used to just throw her things any old place in any old way, hence why she sometimes ran out of bullets when she fucking needed them, but hey…  
  


Travelling with Gabriel Reyes had its perks.  
  


It wasn’t as though he had a choice anyway. Sometimes that made her feel…funny, just a little. But there was nothing to it. It had been such a long time ago…  
  


She propped her feet up on the table and craned her neck until it rested on the head of her chair. “Dios mios, I feel like death.”  
  


Gabriel chuckled. “You should sleep more instead of wasting away on that computer of yours.”  
  


“Ey that’s not it!”  
  


“It is.” He picked up his spoon and pointed it at the only other room in their apartment. “Go to sleep. It’s your turn in the bed tonight.”  
  


“Aww, look at you being a gentleman.” Sombra teased with a bop of her tongue at him. “What, you going to tell me a bedtime story too? How about that siren one? I’ve been telling Raiz about it and that idiot actually believes it!”  
  


From the way Gabriel refused to look at her Sombra had a feeling Raiz wasn’t the only one who indulged in fantasies that couldn’t possibly be real.  
  


When she voiced that Gabriel snorted. “We survived a war raged by walking tin men, but you find the thought of a woman who can lure men to their death through her voice unrealistic?” He clicked his tongue. “I’m shocked, Sombra. I thought you were more open-minded.”  
  


“Look,” she pointed a violet-clawed finger at him, “It’s just some cover story so men can leave their wives and not feel bad about it later knowing some story about a siren is going to cover their asses.”  
  


Gabriel stood up. For a moment she was certain he was actually going to argue over some pathetic fantasy story but in the end he did the one thing he always did: sat on the window ledge and looked out at the sea. It was his routine, to shut everyone out and let his dark skin get bathed in the moon’s light, like it held the answers to everything.  
  


He was wrong of course. The moon was not who held all the power, because that was what knowledge was. Power.  
  


She watched him for a few moments more. His movements were slow and the bags under his eyes deeper than ever, it was a wonder he was still standing.  
  


She let out an exaggerated yawn and waved at him when he turned his head away from the sea to stare at her.  
  


He lowered his head. “Do you ever listen? Go and sleep Sombra.”  
  


“I will! You gonna be here when I wake up?”  
  


“Damn it Sombra, yes! Now, go on. Go.” He talked to her as though she was a child. She had to admit it was inanely appealing, to feel like someone cared for her in such a way, to be given even a sliver of familial affection…  
  


When she closed the door to the single bedroom she knelt and placed her eye to the keyhole, suddenly not feeling very tired at all.

 

* * *

 

The first thing Sombra realized when she woke up was that both her thighs and neck were severely aching from the awkward angle she had fallen asleep at the door. The second thing she realized was that she _had_ fallen asleep despite her best efforts and the third, and final thing she realized was that Gabriel Reyes was no longer sitting on the window ledge.  
  


With a growl she pulled open the door and rushed to the window. It was still dark outside, a small miracle to signal that she hadn’t been asleep for too long but also a pain in trying to find where Gabe’s black-clothed figure was stalking in the humid night of Dorado’s streets.  
  


Unable to stop herself she looked out towards the black sea.  
  


No, ridiculous. No way would he have gone out there, not with that Siren shit he had raved about. He had disappeared before, many times. Not once had she seen him by the docks, nor the fences that walled everyone off from the sea. There was no _way_ he was there.  
  


And yet she couldn’t look away.  
  


Sombra didn’t know how long she stayed there for, watching and waiting for him to appear. It felt like hours but when she looked up at the clock that hung above their stove it had been only a minute. Another minute passed. Then another. And another.  
  


It was when she heard the splashing of water did she move. She tossed her translocator from the apartment’s window and located to the device straight away, scuffing a tile from a roof as she jumped down to land. She regained her balance quickly and without a look back she raced throughout the cobbled streets towards the docks, where the sound of splashing only got louder with each step she took.  
  


Sombra skidded to a stop the moment she got to the docks and looked out over the calm water. The silence that had followed the splashing was deafening, even more so at seeing the vast darkness of Dorado’s waters with Gabriel nowhere in sight.  
  


Suddenly the water rippled and with a gasp Sombra stepped back as a pair of gold, predatory eyes locked onto hers from within the deep.  
  


No, it didn’t make sense. There was no…  
  


A scream echoed throughout the streets of Dorado and with a shudder Sombra watched as a familiar gloved hand pushed itself through the waves to clutch at her boot.  
  


“Sombra…” Gabriel rasped, face pale and eyes bloodshot.  
  


She fell to her knees and pulled at his arm but it was like trying to move him from quicksand. The waves, now tormented by whatever presence lay below, wrapped around him with a strength that shouldn’t have been possible.  
  


She moved to grab her SMG and cursed loudly when she realized she had left it back in their apartment.  
  


“Gabriel! Hold on!” Sombra hooked her feet around one of the nets that were caught up around one of the dock’s fences and laid down on her stomach. With one hand she clutched at Gabriel while the other moved into the water’s depths, searching for anything, anything at all that could help in relenting the creature’s hold on him.  
  


She felt the touch of cold metal and relief flooded her heart. Gabe’s shotguns. It had to be. She grasped at the metal and pulled.  
  


Only to have it snatched from her fingers when what she could only describe as talons clawed at her hand.  
  


And held on.  
  


“Gabe--!” Sombra called out as she was pulled into the darkness of Dorado’s sea, salt water rushing into her lungs, feet tangled in net and the golden eyes of the siren watching her as she sunk further and further down below.


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel and Sombra meet the Siren of Dorado. First impressions are always everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for your lovely comments. Please, let me know how you think I'm doing. Even if it's just one word. I love feedback. <3

**W** hen she had been small her father had knocked her into the sea as a joke. She had sunk like a stone, the shock catching her in its grip to the point she had screamed and water had filled her mouth. She had sunk deeper and deeper into the ocean until her vision had turned black and her ears rang with a music she had never heard before. A siren’s song -- only those didn’t exist.  
  


It felt much like that now. Apart from her father had not wrapped purple talons around her throat. And sirens apparently _did_ exist. Funny, that.  
  


What she had once believed to be two golden eyes blinked and revealed three more pairs, their yellow irises wide with pleasure and the way the moonlight hit the siren’s face – there was something beautiful in the blue skin of her cheeks and a morbid fascination in the curve of her sharp tongue that lapped at Sombra’s face.  
  


When she tried to kick at the siren the monster only twisted the net wrapped around her legs and pulled, dragging her further down into the water’s depths. It’s talons that had pulled her forwards now flung her to the side, sending her spiralling until Sombra felt her back hit one of the wooden beams that held up the docks with a force that made pain shoot up her spine.  
  


It was when Sombra felt the sharp canines of the siren pierce her neck did she think that perhaps today would be the day the sea claimed her. It had tried its hardest numerous of times before when the sea had been her only option of solitude and peace, a time where she had had to dive in and hide from the omnics headlights, lungs prickling with exhaustion, head dizzy from lack of air. Today it was different and yet the same. She felt as she had done before but there was almost a lyrical note to it, as though the siren had somehow enchanted her to relax, to embrace the water and to let the darkness wrap her up like a parent to a child.  
  


And then the sky was on fire.  
  


Or so it looked. Sombra couldn’t tell until something sharp bit into her shoulder and when she turned, eyes barely able to remain open, she could see that it was most definitely not the siren’s teeth.  
  


In fact the siren had retreated entirely and it was with a painful whooshing sound that made Sombra’s ears pop she saw the siren move away from her with a hiss, her arm soiled a deep red colour and her eight eyes set aflame with rage. She looked as though she was about to once more feast on her when again Sombra saw the sky set alight with orange and white and the siren shrieked. She continued to shriek until Sombra felt her ears pop and it was with a groan she turned to look up at the sky and see that there was a hand in the water, waiting for her to grab.  
  


Sombra couldn’t remember how she had had the strength to do it. But when she emerged from the water with Gabriel’s freezing, wet hand as her anchor, all she could do was collapse on the dock, ears ringing and chest pained.  
  


Resting had been her first mistake.  
  


With an unearthly scream the sound of the siren leaping from the water gave Sombra only a moment to roll to the side, the coolness of the night coupled with the possibility of being skewered on the siren’s claws enough reason for her to move as fast as she possibly could.  
  


When she looked up she saw that instead of the eight eyed, blue winged monster she had expected to be hovering over them there was instead only a woman.  
  


A very blue, very naked, golden-eyed woman with a bloodied arm that looked as though it had been shot to hell and back.  
  


Sombra glanced at where Gabriel’s shotguns lay and it didn’t take long for everything to sort itself out. The fire in the sky, the reason the siren had moved away, the sharp pain in her shoulder, the reason she had got away in the first place…  
  


In her musings she had forgotten that there was indeed a siren standing in front of her, the siren of Dorado to be exact.  
  


It explained why Gabriel suddenly appeared, his hands curled into fists in front of his face.  
  


“If you make one wrong move then…” He started to say but before he could finish the siren uttered something under her breath and his arms dropped to his side, limp and heavy.  
  


That, in Sombra’s opinion, could not mean anything good.  
  


“Uh, Gabe?”  
  


The siren muttered something again and with a shout Gabriel bent to grab his weapons and without hesitation turned them on her.  
  


Sombra’s eyes widened, her breath falling short. “Uh? Gabe! Now is not the time for you to be fooling around like –“  
  


A strangled noise came from his throat that silenced her enough that it left time for her to think. Or at least, as think as well as she could with the prospect of her head being blown off if she didn’t do something quick.  
  


Her eyes landed on the siren and she watched with sweat dripping down the back of her neck at how the creature watched her and Gabriel. There was something disturbing in her expression, as though she was calculating what to do next. As though it was her wielding the gun and the both of them tools, ready for her to use whenever she wanted.  
  


Oh. But that was it, wasn’t it? That was how the story of the Siren of Dorado went, didn’t it? Her voice alone could…  
  


“I know what you’re doing!” She called to the creature with a determined smirk. “You’re not so clever, you know?”  
  


“Sombra,” her name sounded as though it had been torn from Gabriel’s lips like a razor being tugged down his throat. “Do _not_ piss her off.”  
  


She shook her head. No, she had this.  
  


“What? You gonna shoot me?” She pointed at the blood that dripped from the siren’s fingers to the dock’s floor. “But look chica, look at your arm. You think that’s gonna get healed by itself?”  
  


The siren cocked her head to the side, brow furrowed and her nose turned up. It was only when her eyes averted to Gabriel did Sombra see her opening and like a python she snatched at it, moving slowly but surely from her position on the dock’s floor to stand, trembling but strong.  
  


“You think his gonna help you?” She clicked her tongue and chuckled loudly when the siren growled at her. “Sure, you’ve got him under your control now. But you need to get that patched up and guess what? He can’t do it. His terrible at it.”  
  


Gabriel glared at her as though she had just told the whole of Los Muertos that he frequently wet the bed. It was good, comforting even, that even with a siren controlling his every move that he found a reason to be mad at her. She would shed a few tears later if she got out of this fucked up situation alive.  
  


“I on the other hand,” Sombra said, placing her hand over her chest in order to resist the urge to twirl on the spot. “Am brilliant at fixing people. Their just like computers, but computers run quieter and shut up when told. Also don’t give me complete headaches but…”  
  


“Sombra!” Gabriel bit out. “You’re going to…” He trailed off, his words breaking away like clumps of dust. When he opened his mouth again, wide as he possibly could, Sombra saw surprise light up his face like the most beautiful firework display she had ever seen.  
  


“What? She’s not going to hurt me.”  
  


The siren glared at her as though she very much begged to differ on that. Sombra shot her a wink in reply. “Come on, lighten up. You look like you’ve just been…”  
  


Sombra watched, open-mouthed, as Gabriel turned and with precise efficiency, slammed the butt of his shotguns across the siren’s face. She fell to the ground with a sickening crunch and a screech that made them both cower away before that too died as quickly as it had come about. It instead left them and the world around them silent, only broken by the harsh breath of shock that left Gabriel’s mouth in a puff of white smoke.  
  


The siren lay at his feet, still with her eyes closed. She looked much like a sleeping angel in how she lay at their feet, her expression calm and serene.  
  


“Fuck,” Gabriel said, head in his hands. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”  
  


Sombra sighed and reached out for him to stop his pacing, finally able to touch him without fearing a bullet in her head. “Hey, hey _amigo_ , don’t beat yourself up…”  
  


He shrugged her off and knelt at the siren’s side, his hand pressed to her mouth.  
  


“She breathing?”  
  


Gabriel nodded with a sigh, his features pulled together into a frown. “Barely. I shouldn’t have hit her that hard.”  
  


“Not to be a party pooper on your ‘feel bad’ parade, but she was going to get you to shoot me.” Sombra said with a shrug as she knelt down next to him. “Just saying.”  
  


“I suppose.”  
  


“Glad I convinced you. Now come on, let’s throw her back in the sea and then you can explain what the hell you were doing out here by yourself anyway-“  
  


“We’re not throwing her back.”  
  


Sombra snapped her head in Gabriel’s direction so fast she felt her neck crick in protest. “Have you lost it, pendejo? She tried to kill us less than a minute ago!”  
  


“She’s also injured!” Gabriel retorted. “We can’t let her go back like this. _She’ll die_.”  
  


“So?”  
  


He shook his head and with a groan he pulled the siren’s blue arm over his shoulder and wrapped the other around his waist. Gently he moved her until the creature had no other choice but to rest against him, her forehead pressed to his cheek and her sleek, purple hair tangled over both her shoulder and his.  
  


“Well don’t you two look cosy…” Sombra cooed with a roll of her eyes. “Seriously. She’s going to eat us when she wakes up.”  
  


“Just shut up and help.”  
  


“Fine…” Sombra relented with a huff, throwing the siren’s other arm around her shoulders. Which was difficult at best considering she felt much like a dwarf in comparison to the siren’s near titan height. “But I’m going to complain all the way back. Just so you know.”  
  


“Believe me, I already knew that the moment I pulled you out of the sea.”

 

**-x-x-x-**

**B** y the time both she and Gabriel had lugged the siren up five flights of stairs Sombra could already feel her eyes closing, bit by bit. The creature was much heavier than she looked and her limps were…She could only describe them as unattractively lanky. They flailed everywhere no matter how many times Sombra tried to control them so they wouldn’t slip, and it was even worse when she had to press the siren up the stairs.  
  


“It’s like carrying a giraffe,” she remembered huffing, wheezing as she and Gabriel climbed higher and higher. “Apart from giraffes don’t try to strangle you to death and then get their friend to shoot you five minutes later.  
  


“You really need to get over that.” Gabriel had said as though he hadn’t been close to shooting her brains out. “What’s done is done. C’mon, move it!”  
  


Sombra snorted at the memory. Yeah, she’d do her best to forget it alright.  
  


“She’s bleeding all over my chair,” she groaned as she and Gabriel slowly placed the siren down in the small, ratty armchair that Sombra had assigned for her ass only. Only now the one arm that propped up the siren’s own had red track marks running down the side. “That was my favourite chair!”  
  


Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose. “If you’re going to complain all the way through this then do me a damn favour and go to sleep. I’ll handle her arm.”  
  


“Pft? Sleep? With her in here? No way. Besides…” She trailed off, moving towards their small kitchenette to rustle through the drawers. “I wasn’t kidding before. You suck at patching wounds up.”  
  


“I’ve patched myself up loads of times!”  
  


“Yeah with band aids and a lot of whiskey!” Sombra replied and as if to prove her point pulled out the ‘Hello Kitty’ band aids in the medical box she had found in the drawer. She put them back where they belonged and with a tut grabbed the second medical kit (hers, to be exact) and with her spare hand, pulled up a chair beside the sleeping siren, hands already rifling through the box’s contents. Gabriel’s shotguns had mostly only grazed the siren’s arm, but just below her shoulder she could see that a bullet had caught her by surprise and luckily, for all of them involved, it had been a clean shot. The exit wound would be a hassle, but she had been doing this for a long time. Even before the omnics had come along…  
  


Gabriel grabbed the siren’s arm and helpfully lifted it up. “We don’t have all day Sombra.”  
  


“Jeez, okay, never heard of don’t rush the support?” She grumbled, forking out the gauze she had been looking for. “Just apply pressure to her arm, yeah there, where I’m pointing at! Yes, thank you. Just hold it there…”  
  


To touch the siren made Sombra shiver. She was a creature made seemingly of ice considering how it felt more like wrapping up a snowman than something that lived and breathed like the rest of them. She was fragile and yet when Sombra finally finished patching her up, snipping the last piece of frayed bandage from around the siren’s wound, she couldn’t help but trace the muscle that was prominent in the creature’s arm.  
  


One snap of her arm against her neck and…  
  


Sombra gulped. “Yeesh, she would have killed me.”  
  


Once he realized she had finished doing the best she could Gabriel dropped the siren’s arm like he would a sack of potatoes. He pressed at her chin with a single finger until she looked up at him, head cocked to the side and a smile on her face that brought one to his.  
  


“Good thing you’re still breathing, eh niña?”  
  


Sombra shrugged. She supposed there were some benefits in her being alive. Mostly Los Muertos hadn’t lost one of their only links to taking down LumeriCo, and with that they were just another step closer to seeing who really ruled the world and with it, Dorado. She had almost forgotten the lust she felt for that answer between everything that happened with the siren and Gabriel, it had all been lost to adrenaline and then exhaustion.  
  


Now it came to her like a forgotten dream and it took only moments for her to regain focus of it once again.  
  


“What are we going to do now?” She asked. She had knelt beside the siren to patch her up, but now she stood, towering over the creature that crackled with a power that neither her nor Gabriel understood. “We can’t leave her here when we attack LumeriCo tomorrow. She’ll have to go back to the ocean as soon as she wakes up otherwise—“  
  


“Better plan. We keep her.” Gabriel interrupted and when she looked over at him he had moved to sit on the small kitchenette counter, a look on his face that she had only seen once or twice. Curiosity, not the good kind. “LumeriCo have been looking for omnics who had stories about her for months. None of us took it seriously because the good majority of us didn’t believe she even existed—“  
  


“—with good reason, pendejo. Nobody would believe that kinda shit apart from you.”  
  


“So that leaves us with a question. Why? Why are they after her?”  
  


Sombra groaned, dragging a hand down her face with deliberate slowness. “Gabe,” she muttered around her fingers. “I like you, you’ve been a great roomie but bunking with a sea creature that can take control of you with her voice alone just doesn’t sound like a great idea.”  
  


Gabriel ignored her, tapping his heels against the kitchen counter. “We’ve got to protect her. Whatever LumeriCo wants her for it can’t be good.” He rubbed a hand over his chin, eyes unable to move away from the siren’s prone form. “Whatever the reason, she’ll be safe here until we deal with Guillermo for good. Then we’ll let her go back where she belongs, with the sea.”  
  


Sombra rolled her eyes and rested her elbow on the siren’s head, chin in hand. “You know Gabe, if you keep that poetic language up we might actually have another career option other than freedom fighters…”  
  


“I’m serious.”  
  


“Oh me too! Speaking of being serious…” She trailed off when Gabriel’s eyes widened and he lunged forward, his large hand thrust out to cover the siren’s mouth. His body pressed against her like a trap and with a grunt he pushed away, eyes hard like steel.  
  


When Sombra looked at the siren she saw a pair of molten gold staring right back at her.  
  


The siren blinked wearily at her as though she were slowly waking from a dream. Her legs, tangled up in the blanket Gabriel had thrown over her to protect her modesty, were locked together by Gabriel’s weight and her eyes, previously clouded with sleep, glared up at him with a fire that made Sombra shiver deep in her bones. She felt it again when the creature directed her gaze at her and saw the sharp fury that sat there, plain and relentless.  
  


Gabriel shook her and the creature snapped her attention back to him, a predatory growl emanating from her throat. It was only fortunate that Gabriel, to his benefit, didn’t seem too perturbed by trapping the creature who had enough strength to snap both of them in two with a blink of an eye with his body because Sombra knew, knew very well, she would have rather been far, far away from here than attempt the same thing.  
  


But hey, bunking with a big muscular guy like Gabriel Reyes had its perks.  
  


Gabriel pressed against the siren harder until her lips were pushed up against his fingers. He looked torn between being a man on a mission or someone who had nothing to lose – perhaps both.  
  


“My name is Gabriel Reyes, this is my companion Sombra—“  
  


“Actually you’re _my_ companion, considering I saved you and all, but hey let’s not get into technicalities…”  
  


“— _we brought you here to clean your wound.”_ Gabriel stressed through gritted teeth. “You attacked me and then attacked her, we fought back. It was as simple as that. But we’re here now and we patched you up. We know who you are, what you are but apart from that, we know next to nothing about you. We’ll let you rest here, until you decide you want to return to the sea. Do you understand what I’m saying? Nod if you understand.”  
  


The siren’s eyes narrowed and when she did eventually nod Sombra couldn’t help but snort. If there was one thing Gabriel wasn’t good at, it was making a first impression.  
  


“I’m going to take my hand away from your mouth. If you try anything my companion here will blow a hole in your skull—“  
  


“Way to be nice about it Gabe.”  
  


“—got it?”  
  


The creature nodded her head, immediately this time. The desperation in the movement, her eagerness to be free…  
  


Sombra felt for her gun at the back of her pocket. Back at the docks she had felt naked without it, relying solely on her cybernetics, but here, with a creature that seemed unable able to break past those things without any shred of concern…She wouldn’t make the mistake of being caught off guard, not again.  
  


“I’m letting you go in three, two, _one…_ ” Gabriel met her gaze and with a nod he moved away from the siren completely until his back the kitchen table and the only sound that filled the room was the scraping of chairs.  
  


Sombra pulled out her gun and held it at the ready.  
  


But the siren did not move. The anger that had been present before gave way to something that neither she nor Gabriel had expected. A silence. Like there was nothing but noise inside the siren’s head, white noise that made the creature actually relax against the chair she sat in, aware of the threat of death surrounding her and still seeming to not care despite it. She stretched languidly, grunting when her injured arm hit the back of the armchair but not making any other comment or sign of movement, falling back into her sitting position with a ‘humph!’  
  


It was when she rearranged her legs under the blanket did Gabriel speak up. “Do you understand what I said to you?”  
  


“Bien sûr, imbécile.” The siren retorted with a heated glare. “Tu crois que je n'ai jamais entendu d'humains avant?”  
  


“Eh, what language is she speaking? Is it mer language?” Sombra asked.  
  


There had been many times in the past where Sombra had felt embarrassed, namely because of things that were not exactly under her control. But she felt nothing could surpass the flush that had crept up her neck the moment the siren turned towards her and simply said: “it’s French, you foolish girl.”  
  


God, dying sounded good right now. She would have to badger Gabe at a later date to remind her to install a translator into her cybernetics to avoid any future miscalculations like this one.  
  


“Now that we’ve cleared that up…” Gabriel sounded like he was about to choke on a lung in amusement, she would definitely punch his arm for it later. “I was wondering if you knew, well, your reputation around here.”  
  


Sombra sighed and surprised even herself by taking a step closer to the siren, hand moving to rest on her freezing shoulder. “Aye, ignore him. What do they call you, I mean, beside the Siren of Dorado?”  
  


The siren looked at her warily, her golden eyes narrowed uncertainly. “No human has asked for my name before.”  
  


“We’re nice humans—“ Gabriel started to say.  
  


“You shot me.” The siren said so coolly that Sombra couldn’t help but wince. Score 1 to the Siren of Dorado and 0 to Gabriel Reyes. “That is not something I would define as ‘nice,’ no matter how you humans put it. And as for you,” a sneer appeared on the creature’s face when she looked up at Sombra. “You would not be able to pronounce my name with how you stumble over something as simple as French.”  
  


Sombra grimaced and did her best to hide her frustration by looking at the area just above the siren’s head. “Look if you don’t tell me your name I’m just gonna call you Fishy for the rest of our hopefully very short acquaintance, it’s up to you.”  
  


Gabriel groaned and Sombra watched as he fell into one of the kitchen’s chairs in defeat. There was something oddly satisfying about it, to see Gabe unfold like that. It almost made him look human and not the machine of death like so many others saw him as.  
  


He bled just like the rest of them. It was what had made Sombra save him when they had first met. It was what had made her trust him after so many years of not trusting anyone, and it was what made her now step beside him to shield his lack of focus from the siren’s prying eyes. If there was one thing they didn’t need right now it was the siren to take advantage of them.  
  


The siren lifted her arm and examined the bandage with a disgusted curl of her lip. “I do not know my real name. The one they gave me was simply Widowmaker.”  
  


“Widowmaker?” Sombra giggled. “What, was Maiden of Destruction already taken or something?”  
  


“They?” Gabriel interrupted before the scowl the siren sent Sombra signalled anything uglier to come. “Who are _they?_ LumeriCo?”  
  


“I do not know who they are, nor have I ever been asked these questions by the tin cans that attempt to talk to me.” The siren rested her cheek in the palm of her hand. It was slightly mortifying how Sombra found herself thinking the siren looked _regal_ in her boredom of the topic – it was funny how the brain worked after nearly being eaten alive by an ancient sea creature. “When I refer to they, I mean those who created me. Who placed me in Dorado…” The siren lost her tongue at that point and trailed off, only to recover momentarily to say, “It was many years ago. You humans would not be able to understand.”  
  


“What I don’t understand, personally,” Sombra interjected, “is why you’re telling us this and not trying to, I don’t know, eat us alive?”  
  


“Sombra…”  
  


“I’m just asking a question, Gabe!” She said with a nudge to his head with her elbow.  
  


“You’re getting her off the subject at hand!”  
  


“I am injured, no thanks to your guns.” The siren said pointedly with a disgruntled smack of her lips. “There would be no point in trying, as you put it, to eat you both. And as for you, girl,” a disgusted noise escaped from the creature’s blue lips. “You taste awful. I have not eaten anything but fish for months, but even they are more preferable than you.”  
  


Sombra felt heat creep up at the very back of her neck again and did her damned hardest to will it down. Which only seemed to make it worse. Which was ridiculous. There was no way in hell she was going to get self-conscious over a tall, naked blue lady called Widowmaker saying she didn’t taste good. Apart from she was apparently.  
  


She looked over at Gabe who only grinned. He was definitely going to receive two arm punches for this.  
  


“I grow tired of these questions. If you must restrain me, then do so. It has been a very long time since I’ve stayed away from the sea for so long,” the siren said and to her credit Sombra could see that the lids of her eyes _were_ drooping. “I’d prefer a bed, that’s what you humans call it, isn’t it? A soft thing which I can rest?”  
  


Sombra distinctly remembered it being her turn tonight. “Hey, hey, that’s kind of mine—“  
  


“She can use it.” Gabriel cut across her as quickly as he always did. He stood up from where he sat beside her and moved to the siren’s side, his hand already at the ready to pull her up. “Can you stand?”  
  


The siren ignored his hand completely and, clutching the blanket to her, stood with a flippant gesture of her head towards the door. “There? Take me to the soft thing.”  
  


Gabriel held up the back of the blanket for the siren as she walked, trailing behind her as softly as ever. Sombra couldn’t help but follow, muttering obscenities under her   
breath as she went.  
  


“Gabe!” She whispered harshly, ignoring the siren’s presence, along with the thought that she would be spending the time resting in her bed, as best as she could. “You know I trust you amigo, but what the fuck are we doing?”  
  


Gabe shrugged and as he gently shut the door behind him, he whispered. “What we always do.”  
  


“What?”  
  


_“Winging it.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Q: But Aimee, what happened with Gabe? Why was he out at the docks?  
> A: You'll find out soon.
> 
> Q: Why is Widow so chill with resting? Why is Gabe? Why is Sombra the only one with any sense here?  
> A: Widow just got shot. Gabe will be answered soon. Sombra is amazing.


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel's reason for finding Widowmaker is revealed. Sombra and Widowmaker attempt to get along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the continued support guys! I'm trying my best to update at least once a month, but please bear in mind I'm at university and sometimes it's just not possible! But here is the next chapter!

**S** ombra woke up to Gabriel tapping her pointedly on the head with the butt of his shotgun. When she jumped back (suddenly  _ very _ wide awake) he only smiled and shook his head.  
  


“Relax, it’s me.” He chuckled as though five seconds ago one twitch of his finger and her very delicate, large and clever brain would not have been splattered all over their apartment’s walls. “Thought you might want breakfast.” And as if to prove his point Sombra watched as he presented a plate of fried eggs behind his back to balance on the arm of the chair she had been sleeping on.  
  


“Fried eggs gonna make me forget why we’re helping a siren?” Sombra said with a roll of her eyes and with a huff she pressed her face into the plush back of the chair.  
  


“I told you. LumeriCo is after her and I think we should find out why.”  
  


“Well how come we didn’t get told this by Diego, huh?” Sombra snapped as she turned away from nesting her face into the cushion. “If she was  _ so _ important to LumeriCo I’d have heard about it. You know I would’ve!”  
  


From the way his jaw clenched Sombra knew she had hit a nerve there. Something that he didn’t quite want to relent on, but that was too bad. She had nothing against the man, but if there was one thing she had found out was that everyone had their secrets – and she would rip them out from under them if she had to.  
  


“I’m right, aren’t I Gabriel?” She prodded and watched as his jaw ticked and he looked away, his grin a forgotten thing of yesterday. “So, let’s—“  
  


“I’ve got to go.” He interrupted her and Sombra sighed at the sight of him turning his back on her, tense and silent as he always was when she poked him too far. It didn’t take much these days, but they made her roll her eyes and slouch each time, unsure what she actually felt when the door opened, then shut and Gabriel Reyes disappeared for hours on end.  
  


Their mission tonight however required him to be more sensitive to time.  
  


“Hey! What about tonight?” She called out to him and when all she received was silence she exhaled noisily and slouched further down the chair. “ _ Pendejo _ .”  
  


She eyed the fried eggs that balanced precariously on the arm. A peace offering she supposed, but it didn’t seem that peaceful anymore considering Gabe had left her alone with a mind-controlling sea creature without even a look back.  
  


She sighed and with a groan snatched the plate from the arm and got up. If she was going to eat she most definitely wasn’t going to eat alone.  
  


Sombra shouldered the door to the bedroom open. “Ah, good morning—“  
  


She stopped and if anyone had been around she was pretty sure they would have heard her mind and body both skid to an abrupt halt at the sight that lay in front of her.  
  


The siren, whom Sombra had been 100% certain had been as naked as the day she had been born when she had went in, now stared sleepily at her with an oversized grey sweater on and her long hair down in a mess of tangled purple tresses that went down to her knees.  
  


Sombra blinked. “Uh.”  
  


The siren, having regained some semblance of sleep within the seconds Sombra had been wasting her time staring, glared. “Wake yourself up. You have seen a woman before.”  
  


That was all it took for Sombra to gain back any sense she had lost and with a humph she kicked the door behind her closed and made her way towards the siren, ready to pounce if the creature made any funny moves towards her. Be it using that ridiculously long tongue to try and taste her again or her voice, which she was still not convinced the siren would not use on them again even despite her injuries.  
  


“Yeesh, you’re pissy in the morning,” she said, sitting down at the bottom of the king sized bed that the siren had so very nicely taken all up like a petty cat. Sombra eyed the handcuffs that Gabriel had placed around the siren’s wrist to keep her locked up at one of the headboard’s posts, at least he had been somewhat clever about it, she supposed. “Bet sleeping in one of those babies was uncomfortable.”  
  


“The steel child did not bother me, I have slept with sharks!” Widowmaker snapped and Sombra snorted into her arm and nearly lost her eggs in the process.  
  


When she managed to regain her meal Sombra folded her legs in under her and watched as the siren  _ watched _ her. “Eh, if you’re hungry you can have these eggs, no trying to seduce me into your mouth or anything.”  
  


“I’ve eaten shark intestines that are tastier than you—“  
  


“Can you stop bringing this up? You’re hurting my two feelings—“  
  


“—and regardless of whatever you say about me controlling you, you insufferable human. I am not capable of doing so because of,” the siren trailed off and Sombra could only watch as she leaned forward as much as she could before she stretched her arm out and tapped at her head. The side where her shaved hair had been replaced by cybernetics that worked down from her head, to her neck and into her very spine. “This. You are too much like the tin men.”  
  


Sombra smirked. There had been a time where she knew very well her reaction would have been different, a time when she had been younger, more inexperienced than now. When to be compared to an omnic had felt like being called a murderer, a disease, a mistake.  
  


Things were different now. “You think I’m just going to believe that?”  
  


“I care not of what you believe.” The siren replied, her jaw clenched a way that made Sombra sit that little bit straighter. She sort of wanted to ask if the siren could spit venom. Just on a hunch. “What I do care about is what you plan to feed me. You and your human companion have already caused me trouble, it is only fair you make sure I am kept for.”  
  


Sombra pointed to her eggs. “What did I already—“  
  


Widowmaker pulled a face. “That is a disgusting human meal. I need something else.”  
  


“Seriously? Like what?”  
  


“Fish.”  
  


Sombra didn’t hold back her laughter this time. “Fish? I’ve got news for you, chica. But us humans? We eat that.” She moved further up the bed and grabbed the quickly cooling eggs with her fingers to shove into her mouth. If there was one thing she would allow herself to enjoy, it would be to at least see the siren react to the most humane, if somewhat disgusting, thing she could think of. “Hey, what’s with the face? A girl’s gotta eat.”  
  


“In such a way?”  
  


“When you can’t be bothered to get a fork, yeah.” Sombra said between mouthfuls of egg, the yolk threatening to run from her chin. “Besides that, it’s gonna give me strength to get you something to eat from the fish stalls and cook—“  
  


At Widowmaker’s look of outrage Sombra trailed off, not willing to risk saying anything else when it looked as though the siren was mere seconds away from ripping her throat out. “Cook? Cook the fish?”  
  


“Uh, yeah.” Sombra said and then watched, mouth slowly dropping, as the siren’s wings that had remained hidden overnight slowly began to uncurl from her back, thin and a scaly translucent blue that made Sombra’s throat bob and caused a shiver to trail down her spine.  “Uh...I guess you didn’t like the sound of that, eh sirena?”

 

**x-x-x-x**

 

**W** hen Gabriel Reyes found himself at the Amari clinic he didn’t pass up the chance to let himself into Doctor Amari’s office. And as he expected, there she was: waiting for him.  
  


Her office was as clean as it always was. Immaculate and shiny in such a way that the urge for him to tip over the nearest cup was something that he found hard to ignore. Until Ana’s eyes landed on him of course, then he was certain to stand up that little bit straighter and look at the air just an inch above her head.  
  


It had been such a long since everything had happened and he still founded himself trembling in his boots whenever she was in the room.  
  


“You’re late as ever Gabriel,” she said and he visibly exhaled in such a way that he heard her tinkling laughter as she rearranged herself on the makeshift seat on her desk. “What am I going to do with you?”  
  


“Hopefully you’ll patch me up,” he said as he walked towards her to take the seat she had left absent at her desk. “If that’s not too much trouble,  _ doc _ .”  
  


Ana snorted and flipped her white braid over her shoulder. Before he could dodge she slapped his shoulder and pointed at the seat. “Sit down before your sulking gives me a headache.”  
  


“I don’t sulk.” Gabriel sulked.  
  


“Ah yes, you brood. Now shut up and show me the damage.”  
  


He paused in removing his shirt and showing her, a cold sweat running down his back so intensely that when he looked up at her she pulled his beanie off and pressed a cold, clammy hand to his forehead. He gritted his teeth and willed himself in the same spot.  
  


He had forgotten. He had forgotten the marks, the marks that Ana had seen before. Had seen so long ago and yet to her it probably felt like yesterday.  
  


He was an idiot, a fool.  
  


Gabriel made a move to get up. “On second thoughts—“  
  


She tutted and with strength that he should have known she still possessed she gripped his shoulder and pressed him back down into the seat. “You’re behaving like a newborn. I must say, back when we were in Overwatch with Jack you were never—“  
  


A shot of red flashed before his eyes and with a growl he tugged away from her, nearly knocking him and the chair over.  
  


“Don’t mention them to me.” He snapped and grabbed the hat she still had in her hands to tug back on his head. “I said last time I was here, that if you keep mentioning them to me then I’ll leave here and never come back!”  
  


Ana snorted. “And get that child to patch you up?”  
  


“She’s nearly 34!”  
  


“A child, Gabriel. Someone who you’ve pulled into your own brand of trouble.”  
  


“My brand?” Gabriel scoffed and shook his head. “You don’t know Sombra very well, do you Ana? Trouble usually comes looking for her.”  
  


Ana pointed back at the seat he had left and with a sigh at the familiar dead eye she threw at him, Gabriel relented. “You’re still with them then, Los Muertos?” She asked as he sat. “Tch, and you think badly of Overwatch.”  
  


“They’re nothing alike.” He said with a shake of his head when Ana gestured to take his shirt off. “It’s fine, I can just lift it-“  
  


He sighed when she lifted his shirt for him and as he knew she would, gasped and took a step back. He watched as pain flickered across her face, pulled together by anger and grief that made him take her hand in his own and loosen her fingers around the thread of his shirt. She eventually relented and he couldn’t bring himself to look away as her hand dropped away, pulled to her chest as though it was the only thing that kept her heart there.  
  


“Those scratches…” She whispered, her voice sounded clogged and small.  
  


He looked at her then. Truly looked at her. Watched as the wrinkles under her eyes deepened as she turned and rested her entire weight on her elbows at her desk, suddenly looking as old he had ever seen her since she had arrived to Dorado. She shook and it took everything for him to not to say anything, to not try and reassure her in anyway. But it would have been wasted – there were things that Ana could never forgive.  
  


“You told me that it was just a myth, that there was no possible way she could have survived what happened to her.” She murmured and it was the steel in her voice that made him sit up straighter in his seat. “That…That Jack had her taken care of. That the only reason there were rumours was because of old times’ sake, because…”  
  


Gabriel closed his eyes. Counted to ten. For a moment it almost seemed easy. “I’m sorry Ana.” But from the look on Ana’s face when he opened his eyes? It was anything but. “I…”  
  


A stark look of realization crossed over her face and from her expression alone it felt like she had plunged a knife into his chest. “You…you shot him.”  
  


He looked away. He didn’t need to see her face to confirm anything. They both were intelligent enough to realize that.  
  


“Gabriel…” He recognized that tone of voice before. He had heard it many times before, disgust, loathing… “Gabriel, that was my daughter and Jack…”  
  


“It wasn’t her fault,” he interrupted, unable to stop himself. “Gerard first, then Fareeha...She didn’t know what she was doing. It was her basic instinct, something we knew could happen. We got slack, and…”  
  


“You stopped him from taking her out.” Ana finished for him and a wave of shame washed over him and grabbed him by the throat. “You stopped him and the destruction of Overwatch was the result, wasn’t it? All these years you made me believe it was  _ Jack... _ ”  
  


Gabriel forced himself to look at her. She had turned back to face him and the rage in her face was not something he could mistake. He saw the fire there, ingrained into each wrinkle, into each taut line of her face…  
  


He swallowed heavily. “It’s why I came.” It was only a half truth, but it was better to say than the alternative. “To tell you that we won’t be slack again, that with her in my care, with me and Sombra going to LumeriCo tomorrow we’ll find answers! Answers to make this all…”  
  


“Gabriel, leave before I take out my rifle and make you.”  
  


“Ana they’re after her too, LumeriCo. She’s going to be in danger—“  
  


“Don’t make me say it again,” she interrupted him harshly, the scarred tissue her of her lost eye narrowed drastically with her glare.  
  


Despite the desire to, Gabriel didn’t argue and got up from his seat, hands in the air in surrender. When Ana Amari threatened to snipe your ass he knew from experience that it wasn’t a bluff, merely a promise. A promise that she had kept many times before.  
  


He didn’t look back until he got to the door. From behind it he could hear the bustle of others attending to the sick, the small and insignificant that everyone had forgot about in times like these, where the war was between the revolutionaries and the dictators that wanted to crush them all under an iron fist. Nothing had changed. It had always been like this. It always would be.  
  


When he turned she had sat in the chair he had vacated, her head in her hands.  
  


“Ana…” He trailed off immediately. He shouldn’t have bothered, it would fall on ears that had every right to be deaf to his words.  
  


With his chest feeling heavier than ever, he left and this time, didn’t look back.  
  


**x-x-x-x  
  
**

**W** hen he arrived back at the apartment to see blood on the table Gabriel felt his heart lurch in his chest, suddenly short of breath with the world spinning under him at such a rate that he gripped the table’s edge and pulled it closer to him. He rested his entire weight on the wood for a moment, eyes pinned to the blood that ran towards him in thin, red rivulets.  
  


Ana had been right. He had fucked it up. He had left in a panic, he had failed again. He had left Sombra. All because of his panic. He had panicked. He had failed, he had…  
  


He saw the bedroom door was still cracked open and didn’t hesitate. He grabbed his shotguns, carelessly left on the side drawers, and with a kick to the door he entered and trained them on…  
  


His eyes widened and it felt like the world had rushed to a halt. “Sombra?”  
  


Sombra, now dressed in her uniform and with dry egg yolk stains on her lower lip, jumped up from the bed with a yell with the plate she had been spinning on the tip of her finger to show off to the siren falling to the floor with a graceless thump.  
  


“GABE! Yeesh, I tried to tell her Gabe, I really did! I told her you wouldn’t want her eating fish in your bed but—“She trailed off and Gabriel sniffed hard to combat the emotions that had seemed to grapple him. “Ay, está bien amigo?”  
  


He tried not to let the gratitude of her swapping into Spanish show on his face. “No es nada. Había sangre en la mesa.”  
  


“Oh yeah.  _ That _ .” Sombra turned on her heel to glare at the siren whom Gabriel noticed, after following Sombra’s gaze, glared right back at the hacker. “She wouldn’t eat fish cooked. She was very adamant about that, weren’t you  _ sirena _ ?”  
  


The siren, who Gabriel noticed was now sporting his very baggy ‘DRESS TO DEPRESS’ hoodie and sweatpants to cover her modesty, bit into the haddock Sombra had served to her on an unbelievably small plate for such a big catch. She made no effort to reply in any other way.  
  


He couldn’t help but eye the creature, so apparently ignorant and yet they had fallen for that mistake before.  
  


It was when he looked away that she answered him.  
  


“I recognize your eyes.” She placed her meal down or, to put it in better terms, threw it to the floor and ignored Sombra’s groan of displeasure to focus more intently on him than he had ever expected from her.  
  


It had been years ago. Years ago. She was lying. She had to be.  
  


He turned to Sombra. “Is she ready to move out?”  
  


Sombra arched a brow at him and crossed her arms over her chest. “Move out? You’re serious about bringing her with us?”  
  


“Deadly,” he said, grabbing the plate from the floor Sombra had dropped to tuck under his arm. “I’m going to clean this and then my guns and  _ then  _ we’re going to move out, set up in a location and report in before we get into LumeriCo.”  
  


“So. You’re going to clean up the apartment before we leave?” Sombra asked before Gabriel could leave.  
  


“ _ Sombra. _ ”  
  


She threw up her arms with a hasty laugh. “Alright! Fine! If that’s what you need to do! Don’t let me stop you!”  
  


When he exited Sombra instantly turned on the siren, running to jump onto the bed next to the creature with a grin. “Ooh, whatever you said must have really freaked him out! He only cleans when he's stressed.”  
  


The siren, as she had been doing ever since Sombra had returned smelling of fish and stale sweat from Dorado’s weather, narrowed her eyes at the hacker. “You do not seem to care about the non-cyborg.”  
  


“Wow.” Sombra lifted up a finger to boop the siren on the nose. “Now that, is a gross overstatement there my little fishy friend. I happen to care a great deal about a lot of things.” And as if to prove it she closed her eyes and within moments pulled up her virtual interface for the siren to look at. She pointed at the LumeriCo sigil she had brought up in the centre. “See that? I care a lot about stopping  _ that _ .”  
  


The siren’s blue skin, now a lighter shade since Sombra had thrown each possible piece of Gabriel’s clothing at her, looked eerie in the fading sun, but even more so when it clashed drastically against the green of the LumeriCo logo that Sombra had pulled up. It looked even more sickly when the siren, who ignored Sombra’s protests because of course she did, pressed against the symbol herself with a huff when her hand went right through.  
  


“You tin cans and your technology,” Widowmaker huffed. She flopped back against the pillows with a shake of her head and a click of her tongue. “You wish to stop a place that would help expand in technology and enhance all of the citizens of Dorado, knowing that without your technology you are far less advanced than you are with it?”  
  


When Sombra didn’t answer the siren grabbed the hacker by the wrist and pulled her closer to her side.  
  


She couldn’t stop her scowl when the younger woman winked at her. “Bit fast for me, azul.”  
  


“I notice you didn’t answer my previous question,” she said before the hacker could say anything else. “About your companion.”  
  


“Actually I did, just in a very avoiding the question kinda way.” Sombra said with a laugh. She wriggled away from the siren with a twirl, the virtual interface she had been looking at still brought up in front of her. “Look, I got you your fish so you wouldn’t try anything. But after this whole thing is sorted me and Gabe,” she did her signature finger guns that made everyone she had ever met (including Gabriel) glare, “are taking you back to where you belong, alright chica? Until then I’m keeping as far away from you as humanly possible.”  
  


To Sombra’s irritation the siren smirked. It was not a regular smirk that she saw on everyone’s face nearly everyday when one of the guys from Los Muertos ended up losing everything in strip poker. It was not the smirk of amusement either, it was something more chilling than she had ever felt before. It brought her to a standstill. Not one she was comfortable with in being in the same room as the siren.  
  


Widowmaker pressed a sharp talon to the curve of her bottom lip. “You are doing a very poor job at it then, girl.”  
  


“Huh?”  
  


“At staying away from me.” She clarified with a nonchalant shrug that didn’t seem to fit her at all. To Sombra the siren looked so calculated with each breath that something as simple as a shrug...It just seemed wrong. “Perhaps you would fare better at staying away from me if you were to actually leave my presence.”  
  


Sombra felt the heat she had willed to stay down spring to her cheeks. “Oh don’t worry azul, I will!” She flicked her hand and with a ‘zziip!’ noise the screen she had been scanning disappeared from sight. “Gabe! I’m coming out to help-”  
  


“No, stay in there with her!” Gabriel’s muffled answer couldn’t be mistaken and Sombra inwardly fumed at seeing the siren’s smirk grow, delighted beyond words.  
  


“Gabe I really…”  
  


A loud groan and Sombra distinctly heard a plate clatter in the background. “If you’re coming out then you’re bringing her with you! Use the handcuffs!”  
  


The siren laughed and pointedly shook the wrist that the handcuff was attached to against the bed’s headboard.  
  


Sombra felt as though an entire storm had rushed out of her ears. She tried again and again to think of something that could prevent her going anywhere with Widowmaker, to not fail and prove the siren’s point completely, to come out of it all with dignity intact…  
  


Apart from she couldn’t think of anything and now Gabriel Reyes, in her opinion, was now deemed as ‘officially the worst’.  
  


“I don’t have all day,” Widowmaker interrupted her just as she was about to turn and pick the cuff’s keys up from the hook.  
  


She glowered at the creature from over her shoulder.  
  


The siren responded by simply rattling the cuffs. Again. “Tick, tock girl.”  
  


Sombra muttered under her breath all the way towards the siren and all the way back towards the door, the long-legged creature stumbling behind her, their wrists interlocked each time they bumped into one another trying to get out of the door.  
  


When she saw Gabriel had finished the plate she shot him the deadliest glare she could muster. “You’re dead to me, Reyes.”  
  


He looked at her and even before he said anything Sombra immediately regretted her previous words. There was something in his eyes that made her shudder and pull the siren in closer behind her, the feel of the creature’s cold, blue skin an odd comfort but one that made her stand that little bit straighter in knowing at least something was behind her. Even if it was only physically.  
  


“Anything else you want to add or are you ready to move out and finish what Diego wants?”  
  


Sombra looked over her shoulder at the siren and arched a brow that she hoped said ‘what the fuck’ much better than she could relate in words alone.  
  


The siren nodded. “I have no choice in this nor am I able to return to the sea with my injury that you are so helpfully irritating with this steel child wrapped around our wrists.” She grunted and Sombra watched as she looked up at Gabriel with an expression of iron that made her feel out of place in the room that was already clogged with tension. “I am ready to leave. Whatever comes next is up to the two of you.”  
  


“By the looks of it, the one of us.” Sombra muttered. She tugged Widowmaker to her side and looked up at the creature before she tapped the belt fastened under her coat. “You watched me put this on, you know I’ve got my gun trained on you.”  
  


“And my eyes are trained on  _ you _ , ombre.”  
  


Sombra gave her a sly wink. “I’ll try and put on a show then.” When she turned attention back to Gabriel, whom still looked as cold and moody as ever, she sighed and grabbed one of the shotguns he had left to rest on the armchair. “Come on amigo, we’ll go set up in the safehouse. We can contact Diego when we’re there, grab any back up if needed and then get the job done so we can go home and you can start smiling again. Easy peasy, no?”  
  


Gabriel frowned harder. “Nothing is ever that easy.”  
  


“Aye Gabe forget I said anything, okay?” Sombra chucked his gun at him and let out a low whistle when he caught it as though she had passed him an apple. All by reflex. “Good catch, now promise to cheer the fuck up by the time we get to the safehouse, will you?”  
  


“Can’t promise anything.”  
  


Sombra groaned and with a dramatic, over the top sigh, pulled the siren along with her to the exit. She grabbed her coat as she moved and threw it over her shoulder. “Put that on sirena, or people will wonder what kinda festival’s happening for you to be covered in blue paint.”  
  


“It is not paint, cyborg.”  
  


“ _ Sombra _ and I know that! But they don’t.”  
  


“Maybe you two should hold hands,” Sombra heard Gabriel suggest from behind them as they walked to the apartment’s elevator. “So you don’t look suspicious by being so close wrist-to-wrist, I mean.”  
  


“Never!” The siren hissed and Sombra felt her cheeks once again become heated.  
  


“You aren’t that good looking either, Nemo!”  
  


“Quiet, both of you!” Gabriel muttered under his breath. “You’re going to have everyone coming out to complain if you don’t keep it down!”  
  


Sombra did the only thing she felt was possible at that point: using her free arm she nudged the siren in the gut and felt almost a sick amount of pleasure when the creature almost walked into a wall at the sharp movement.  
  


“You little-!” Widowmaker snarled, her teeth sharp and bared.  
  


Gabriel grabbed them by the shoulders and pushed both of them towards the elevator’s doors. “Get moving. I don’t want to hear anything out of either of you until we get to the safehouse.”  
  


“She started it.” Sombra protested as the doors shut behind them.  
  


“Well I’m finishing it!”  
  


Sombra side-eyed the creature next to her and pointedly jammed her thumb on the ground floor button. She hoped it was clear enough that Widowmaker knew she was picturing it as her head.  
  


Dios mios, she couldn’t  _ wait _ to get rid of the damn thing once and for all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, I'm so very grateful to ALL the support I receive from you guys. They really mean the world to me, and they are the things that drive me to write for you. Next chapter though? More action! And even more twists!
> 
> I'm also always down to talk to you guys outside of AO3 and if you ever do want to talk about the story or whatnot, contact me at maxaholic.tumblr.com!


	4. Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They break into LumeriCo. 
> 
> (Gore TW)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alrighty so.
> 
> This took me ages to complete. Hence why the super long chapter. I've had university, my job and uh other distractions (aka Mass Effect) to keep me from writing but /hey/ better later than never at all, right?
> 
> To any who STILL are reading this, thanks so much! Please comment they make my day! Thanks so much for your patience and enjoy!

Once they arrived at the safe house (an old, abandoned place that smelled like coffee and oddly, sweat) Widowmaker found herself pressed to the cyborg’s side as she led her inside to another room, the human male following quickly after.  
  


“Diego?” The cyborg asked, her voice high and pained. Irritated. It had had a similar pitch throughout their walk here, like a dolphin prodded one time too many.  
  


“Fuck Diego,” the human responded with a shake of his head. “We’re here to get into LumeriCo, not hold his hand and give him updates all the way.” He made a scissor gesture with his hand and pointedly snipped at the air. “If he calls, we cut it. We can’t have him risking this mission for us, Sombra.”  
  


The cyborg’s response was a simple roll of her eyes and Widowmaker hissed when she abruptly turned away. She dragged her towards what looked to be a stuffed double seat cushion chair (a sofa maybe, was that the human word?) and with a sigh threw herself down on it, bringing her along with her.  
  


“Are you creatures always so heavy handed?” Widowmaker huffed with a shake of her head, her long, blue hair cascading around her shoulders.  
  


Sombra looked at her from the corner of her eye and smirked. “I’m just giving you the special treatment, sirena.”  
  


“Sombra, enough!” Gabriel barked and with a laugh the other woman gestured with her free hand and an array of purple screens floated in front of her face. “If you’re finished messing around, can you confirm that we can get in unseen?”  
  


“Well with this lanky, blue thing on me I can’t confirm anything…”  
  


Widowmaker’s upper lip curled and with a growl she tugged the cyborg to the side until she crashed into her. It was a demeaning, human act and to her annoyance she felt it start to chafe at her, as though the simplicity of human anger had already begun to worm inside of her until she nearly felt like them. As disgusting as that was to think, she could no longer deny it with both the male and cyborg looking at her as they were.  
  


“Sombra stop irritating her. And you…” Gabriel jabbed his index finger at her as though he was her commander. Widowmaker had seen similar creatures in the sea who thought they could control her through intimidation; usually they ended up as bits stuck in between her teeth. “No pulling those kinds of tricks on the mission, you hear me?”  
  


Widowmaker replied by pushing Sombra off of her. It was the only way she could think how without possibly trying to kill the both of them.  
  


Sombra resumed her work which was…Something Widowmaker truly could not understand. There seemed to be an excessive amount of hacking and wading through a mixture of numbers and letters that made Widowmaker long for the ocean, at least that life seemed less confusing.  
  


The human on the other hand seemed more than preoccupied with what awaited outside the boarded-up windows. She watched as he peeled the board back, bit by bit, to peer out and then, as quick as he had looked, he shut it again. Then repeated the process. Again and again, and again.  
  


It was when he finally left his corner to leave the room did she see that he had left an indent in the wood that even with her strength, shouldn’t have been possible without her talon going right through.  
  


Perhaps she and the cyborg girl were not the only ones lacking in the human department…  
  


“Guns?” The cyborg called out after him.  
  


“Check!”  
  


“Armour packs?”  
  


“Check!”  
  


“Irresistible locks that would drive anyone wild?”  
  


When Gabriel didn’t answer Widowmaker watched as Sombra turned to her, that irritable grin still plastered onto her face. “He never answers me after that one. Poor guy.”  
  


Moments later he reappeared with what looked like a leather belt slung over his shoulder, a slick, black object with a scope attached to it that was long enough it kept hitting his thigh as he walked over to them, dark eyes wide and full of an emotion Widowmaker could not name. It was hard to name anything that occurred when this man, this human and yet not human, was around. He carried himself differently from the cyborg – as though he had something unsaid that bothered him, but unlike his companion, struggled to hide.  
  


If his companion, this woman, realized the same thing she did, she didn’t let it show.  
  


The screens next to her flickered down and with a start Widowmaker found herself jerked upwards along with Sombra, the hacker suddenly invested with the appearance of both Gabriel and the weapon in his hands.  
  


“Eh? I don’t snipe, Gabe. I’m the person who goes in and…”  
  


“It’s not for you.” He interrupted her with a roll of his eyes.  
  


“You can’t snipe for shit either!” She retorted with a huff.  
  


“I know,” he growled out and with a flippant wave of his hand he threw the belt over Widowmaker’s head, the leather catching perfectly on her shoulder so that the gun, this thing they called ‘snipe’, rested perfectly on her hip. “It’s for _her_.”  
  


The hacker exploded, just like Widowmaker had expected her to. Even though she had only been in her presence for a short while, it was becoming easy to predict what she would do next.  
  


Like how Sombra tugged at her wrist, pulling her towards her until they were squished together. “That’s a perfect plan, Gabe! Give the voice-controlling death machine a weapon when it’s already bad enough she’s coming with us!”  
  


“She needs a weapon. It’s as simple as that.” Gabriel shrugged and beside her the hacker’s ire seemed more and more apparent.  
  


“She _is_ a weapon!”  
  


Widowmaker sighed loudly and found that the noise almost seemed to act as a large bell, drawing both Gabriel and Sombra’s attention towards her.  
  


“You fight like…” Her brow creased in concentration, “like…sharks. Irritating, brash and full of quirks that can only be described as _annoyances_. I would rather go back to the sea, injured as I am, than put up with you both like this. Now…” she pushed Sombra away from her, eyes narrowed dangerously at the look of protest on the other woman’s face, “if I am to be forced to help you two with this plan then so be it, but keep this up and I promise you: I _will_ eat the both of you.”  
  


Widowmaker arched a brow when Sombra’s mouth pulled into a devilish smirk. She took back everything she had thought about her: the girl was not as predictable as she had thought.  
  


“Even me?” The electric pads laced into the hacker’s gloves crackled in what could only be used as a dramatic show of delight, “I’m so touched.”  
  


Gabriel on the other hand merely snorted, raking his hand under his beanie with a shake of his head. He was a man of few words and despite the nagging at the back of her mind that this man did not seem who he made himself out to be, Widowmaker found herself at the very least appreciating his tact of not saying anything unless he truly had to.  
  


That being said…  
  


“Before we go, human, tell me something.” She pointed at the object that hung against her hip. “What is a snipe?”

 

* * *

“Are you sure you understand it now?” Gabriel asked for the millionth time that evening. Widowmaker had had to restrain herself from groaning aloud only after the third time he had asked her, but now it was just getting beyond ridiculous. The man seemed to mistrust her understanding to the point that this time he asked her when they were both extremely busy trying to climb over a 7ft wall into LumeriCo headquarters.  
  


Sombra yawned exaggeratedly from above her. “Gabe I think she gets it, you’ve told her so many times how it works. I mean, you even got rid of the cuffs so she could try it out. That’s totally against what you would usually do.”  
  


Gabriel groaned from above the both of them. “Thanks.”  
  


“No problem.”  
  


Widowmaker rolled her eyes and with a hiss sunk her hands into the brick. It only took moments for her fingers to transform into the talons she had had when in her other form, but the sight of them still managed to shock her. She had not been around humans for a while and their…appendages still somewhat amused her even on her own body.  
  


She was still uncertain why she had agreed to help the both of them. They seemed utterly wretched, their strategy against an agenda that left them no chance of winning and yet…  
  


The male. He seemed familiar in ways that she couldn’t comprehend. And the look in his eye…He knew her, he must do with the way he hid from her – not shy, but something else. Something that didn’t quite fit…  
  


The cyborg on the other hand…  
  


“Hey sirena, hold my foot for a second.” She chuckled, leaving her no choice but to accept the hacker’s foot pressed down on the top of her head. “Gonna jump the last bit, need a foothold.”  
  


Widowmaker wondered briefly whether sinking her teeth into the woman’s foot would be worth the arguments afterwards.  
  


When they had finally gotten over the wall (and her hands back to the human normal) the three of them grouped up in a small corner of the wall that allowed them some room to hide from prying eyes. Mostly Sombra had managed to grab her and Gabriel and had stuffed them both there, fingers over both of their lips while she whispered instructions so fast that even in all her superiority she struggled to keep up.  
  


“Okay so first thing is first. We leave Widowmaker out here— “Sombra started to say but was interrupted instantly by Gabriel.  
  


“Out of the question. She stays with you on this mission.”  
  


“She’s a sniper!” The cyborg protested. “She’s supposed to stay out here and snipe! That’s what we wasted a whole hour on, remember?”  
  


When Gabriel opened his mouth to argue even further, Widowmaker let out a growl. “I stay with the frustrating computer girl. Now, continue."

 

She ignored the disbelief on Sombra’s face to point at the large, luminous L that was perched at the front entrance of the building. “Is that the way we are going in, human?”  
  


Gabriel looked at her as though she had just suggested he was naked in front of an audience of thousands. “Through the front door? Hell no. We’re going in—“  
  


“Actually we are. Well…You are, to be exact.” Sombra said, the disbelief on her face still there though somewhat subdued enough in order to concentrate. “What do you say Gabe, wanna play the distraction for me?”  
  


Gabriel scoffed. “Do I have a choice?”  
  


“Not really,” Sombra smiled sweetly and moved to pat him on his broad shoulders. “You’ve got this, big guy. And don’t worry…” Widowmaker watched as she nudged his arm. “I’ll come rescue you the moment you start screaming.”  
  


Despite the unwillingness that was so obvious in his body language, Widowmaker could tell that he was a man of principle. He followed a code that strangely only seemed to break when Sombra was involved: unusual human behaviour. Especially in a man that stunk of military action, with his shaved head, the scent of cheap metal wrapped around his neck…He was supposed to listen to rules.  
  


Incredible how the cyborg inspired so many to bend or break them completely.  
  


Just as he was about to leave he turned and gave the hacker a thin smile. “Remember what I said on our first mission together?”  
  


Sombra pressed a claw to her lip, even tapped it for dramatic flair. “Stick with me kid, don’t listen to that asshole Diego. We’re not splitting up, no matter what?”  
  


For the first time since she had found herself in the company of these two fools Widowmaker watched as a genuine smile passed between the two of them. It didn’t even feel like they were going to try and kill the other.  
  


Humans. Odd sentimental creatures who felt kinship over the strangest things.  
  


Gabriel touched two fingers to the corner of his head in a salute. “Kick ass, tramposa.”  
  


Sombra returned the gesture with a sly wink. “Back at you, cabrón.”  
  


With that he was gone.  
  
  
It didn’t take long for them to start moving. In fact the moment she heard Gabriel’s voice, declaring he had become lost and had climbed over the wall for help, Sombra had dragged her from their position and down towards what looked to be a huge, metallic shed.  
  


“Power station,” Sombra explained as she hurriedly pushed Widowmaker through the blue metal doors. She paused and glanced around the metal to see that Gabriel had been met with a group of omnic bodyguards, their robotic faces betraying nothing of what was to happen next. For that reason Sombra reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, circular device that had multiple red buttons around it. She twirled it around her palm before she pressed down on it, the device lighting up a neon green.  
  


Sombra pulled back to shoot the siren a wicked look. “Want to see some fireworks?”  
  


Before she could reply the other woman suddenly disappeared. Widowmaker followed where she had been and peered around the door to spot that Gabriel had been forced to his knees, the omnics that surrounded him with their rifles to his head. What had Sombra been thinking, making them split up? Of all the humane, idiotic plans…  
  


And then just like that she watched as Sombra reappeared beside her, finger on her lips and her brow quirked upwards. She raised her other hand and Widowmaker watched, fascinated, as the hacker counted down from three, two, one…  
  


One after the other, the omnics around Gabriel fell to their knees. The slits that were there to represent their eyes flashed white and suddenly they lurched to the floor, unresponsive.  
  


Gabriel glanced over at them over his shoulder, shaking his head. “About damn time!”  
  


Sombra winked and with another growl of displeasure from Widowmaker, she tugged them inside.

 

* * *

 

LumeriCo was as heavily guarded as Sombra had expected it to be. The almost blinding white walls that lined the corridors were fortified with sensors that scanned each individual that passed by, beeping quietly in affirmation whenever it was done. All in all it seemed a nightmare to any thief or spy that wanted to infiltrate into the very heart of LumeriCo and escape unscathed.  
  


But hey, Sombra had always liked a challenge.  
  


She had situated her and Widowmaker just safely around the corner and out of the nearest sensor’s way. While the codes she and the rest of Los Muertos had secured last night were good enough to access areas (such as the main power grid) and fiddle with security cameras, it would be no good in moving around if they were already busy running from guards that were alerted of their presence. A challenge, maybe even a little bit of fun but with her company she wasn’t so sure the risk was worth it.  
  


The siren, as if she had heard Sombra’s thoughts, hissed. “We are vulnerable out here! What are you doing?”  
  


Sombra scowled at her. “Will you let me work? I’m trying to think on how to get past the sensors!” She ignored the protest that earned and leaned around the corner again. Still nothing but guards and scientists moving into other corridors that joined on, nobody coming their way just yet that she could possibly take advantage of…  
  


She pushed the siren to wall opposite her. “Keep an eye on what’s coming, I need to check the maps we scrounged up yesterday.”  
  


“I am blue! I’ll stand out like a sore thumb!” The siren argued only to be ignored by a simple wag of the hacker’s finger. “Tut, fool.”  
  


“Keep those insults coming, azul,” Sombra murmured as her cybernetics turned red and her interface popped up just above her arm. “Makes me work faster.” And she knew she needed that motivation, dearly. LumeriCo was bigger than any of them had even thought of and while she had only been here yesterday she realized just looking through these maps that they hadn’t even scratched the surface. To say it was huge was an understatement: the rows of corridors was more than enough to tell her that.  
  


Sombra shook her head and cursed. She had been too cocky with Diego yesterday and now he expected results she wasn’t quite sure she could give him.  
  


“Are you done?” Sombra changed her mind. The siren being here didn’t help one fucking bit.  
  


“I’m trying to find the mains,” she muttered out through gritted teeth. “Unless you can help with that then shut up, okay, amiga?” Before Widowmaker could speak she flipped through another level and pinched at the screen to zoom in closer. It made sense that the mains would be underground but to get there without detection would be impossible, and Guillermo wouldn’t be stupid enough to leave that unguarded either. However the sensors would be a problem all the way to Guillermo’s office, it would be suicidal to try and get there without security coming down on them hard.  
  


How the hell was Gabriel getting around without being noticed?!  
  


Just as she was about to connect her communications with him, Sombra found herself pinned to the wall by the siren.  
  


“Hey what— “  
  


“A guard is coming!” Widowmaker whispered harshly, her hands tight against Sombra’s shoulders as she peered around the corner. “What is your plan, girl?”  
  


Sombra purposely hit the back of her head against the wall. “Fuck, okay hold on let me use my translocator, we’re going to have to make a run…”  
  


The siren pressed a long, blue finger to her lips. “Non, I am _sick_ of running.”  
  


“ _You’re_ sick of running?! Think about—!”  
  


“Cover me!” Widowmaker growled and with a sinister laugh that made the hair on Sombra’s neck stand up on edge, the siren disappeared around the corner without another word.  
  


Sombra rolled her eyes. This was the first and last time she was ever going to listen to Gabe on taking the enemy on a mission with them.  
  


She poked her head around the corner and…  
  


Her jaw dropped. “Sirena?!”  
  


What awaited her was a scene of carnage. In what seemed like only seconds the siren had managed to transform the white, pristine corridor into something that resembled a battleground. The guards that had been patrolling up and down were now on the floor, trying to tear away the helmets from their heads, their mouths open in agony. What looked to be an engineer cowered in the corner, his head pressed against the wall for a moment before it lunged forward and then backwards, smacking into the concrete until, with a whisper from Widowmaker, he stopped and slumped fully to the floor.  
  


Sombra gulped and when she looked up again she saw that the siren was staring right at her. Smiling. Apart from her teeth had curled into the fangs Sombra remembered piercing her from the watery depths below, sharp and thick and menacing all at once. While the siren’s near human like transformation was nearly picture perfect if you disregarded her blue skin, the predatory nature of her inhuman side brought Sombra crashing down into reality: the siren was as dangerous as Gabriel had said she was. There was no doubt about that any longer.  
  


“Next?” Widowmaker rasped, her head snapping forwards to look at the sobbing guards that lay slumped on the floor.  
  


Sombra found it hard to find her voice. “Uhm. From the looks of it they’ve been able to pass through because of some sort of security implant embedded somewhere—“  
  


Before she could finish speaking the siren flexed her shoulders and murmured something under her breath.  
  


Instantly the two nearest guards lurched to their feet, their chins pressed to their chests and their eyes closed.  
  
  
“Uh…”

  
With a sickening tearing noise Sombra could barely pull her eyes away in time from the guards as they dug their nails into the open palms of their hands and dug deep inside. They ripped at the skin and flesh as though it was nothing but an inconvenience, their faces betraying nothing of the pain that they would no doubt feel when they woke up from the siren’s trance. Instead they lumbered forward, ignorant to their destruction and it was only when Sombra felt the cool, soft palm on her shoulder did she realize that the siren’s lips were stretched over her sharp fangs in an unmistakable smug smile.

  
“Give her what she wanted.”

  
The nearest guard hobbled forward until the siren reached out with her hands to stop him in front of her. For a moment his hand hesitated in moving to present her whatever he had, but when the siren gripped at his wrist and hissed in her mother tongue again he immediately moved forward and dropped a flashing, square device into the palm of her hand.

  
Sombra cocked her head to the side, eyes wide. “Is that…” She paused and glanced up at the siren. “Are you fucking kidding me? What the, what the shit? Holy fuck azul, you…you literally told this guy to rip it right out of his hand?”

  
Widowmaker shrugged. “You do not need to thank me. It was nothing.” When the next guard passed his implant onto her she merely pressed a finger to his forehead and he dropped like a sack of potatoes. She turned around and did the same to the guard in front of Sombra, yellow eyes wild with satisfaction and…what Sombra could only describe as _hunger_. “With these we’ll be able to sneak past whatever defences without trouble—“

  
“Yeah those alarms are definitely going to go off sooner than you think, siren.” Sombra interrupted, gesturing wildly to the corridor of bodies in front of them. “You know, the whole body thing going on over there?”

  
“Then I suggest you stop talking and start moving.”

  
In Sombra’s opinion if she hadn’t been too busy being confused on how to feel about Widowmaker absolutely decimating a whole corridor of people she would most certainly be annoyed by the siren’s attitude and put up a fight. Instead she nodded, quickly checked her nav screens and pointed straight ahead. “That way to Portero’s office. If there’s information that’ll destroy him like Diego wants, it’s gotta be there.”

  
Sombra tip-toed as best as she could around the slumped bodies the siren had left behind, the sight enough to draw a breathless, near gleeful laugh from her lips. “Jesus, you make the rest of Los Muertos look tame!” She tried not to look too hard at the bloodied implant, probably the only bummer of the whole thing really, by scrunching it up in her fist. If she had guessed right then Guillermo’s office wouldn’t be too far from here, maybe even an elevator directly to it, and there she would be able to… “Hey Widowmaker, you hear that crunching…what the fu—!”

  
She grabbed the woman’s shoulder and shook her until the arm that the siren had been holding to her mouth dropped to the floor next to the unconscious body it belonged to. “Sirena you’re shitting me! Tell me you’re shitting me! Ugh, is that…?”

  
Widowmaker wrenched away from her grip with a scowl, her sharp teeth stained as red as the tattered mess of flesh on her cheeks. “I was hungry.”

  
Sombra shook her head. “You seriously eat people?”

  
Widowmaker rolled her eyes, which considering she had half a human being around her chops, did nothing to comfort Sombra whatsoever. “You have referred to me eating others many times, but you’re now surprised? Foolish girl.”

  
“I thought you were kidding! Fuck,” Sombra covered her mouth and nose. “Please move your mouth away from my general direction.”

  
“You are being dramatic,” Widowmaker replied dryly, using her arm to wipe the blood from her face. She pointed forwards. “This way, yes?”

  
Sombra squinted at her. “We’re going to seriously talk about your eating habits on the way, just so you know.”  
  


* * *

 

Gabriel readjusted the implant he had tied to his wrist with a sniff. It had been simple enough to find it, or to explain it better, it had been simple enough to find the implants guests were given when they visited by going up to the first desk he had seen and punched the guy there to the point he had done exactly what Gabriel had wanted him to.

  
Of course he was now sleeping soundly under his desk, but hey, sacrifices had to be made and the worst he would get would be a yelling at for sleeping on the job.

  
That was of course, Gabriel thought snidely to himself as he eyed the camera he walked past up the stairway, if nobody had been watching in the first place. But that was the point of Sombra and the rest of Los Muertos stealing the codes beforehand, now wasn’t it?

  
While Sombra had contacted to inform him she was heading to Guillermo’s office, his path was a bit more…direct. He had been told by Sombra herself that the CEO would be meeting with another organization tonight and if that was true then there was only one place, and one place only, he would need to go.

  
On the 4th floor Gabriel paused at the doorway and peered inside. A one-way corridor with only a door to the right. Simple really for a CEO but he would bet anything he had that Guillermo was smarter than he looked at positioning himself in closed space like this: one exit for both him and any intruder and 50/50 odds. It didn’t seem like much but Gabriel had done his research, he knew the sort of man that Guillermo was. A part of him even respected it.

  
But that part could go fuck itself as far as he was concerned and it didn’t stop him from opening the door and stepping inside.

  
And immediately he could hear voices.

  
“What you’re looking for is fundamentally insane,” Guillermo’s voice was muffled by the door but it still had the power of a raging rhino as it echoed down the corridor. Impenetrable. Unable to stop for anything. “We’re already funding Vishkar, but Talon too? And all for the search of a doctor? You’ve got to understand that this, Mr Simmons, is completely impossible.”

  
“You’ve already failed at trying to capture the siren, Portero.” The representative of what Gabriel assumed to be Talon replied, his voice quieter than Guillermo’s to the point Gabriel had to move further down the corridor until was pressed into the space just behind the door, ear pressed to the wood. “Something, if you recall, _we_ have funded _you_ for.”

  
“A mythical being that there is no proof of existing --!”

  
Gabriel flinched at the sound of flesh (a fist no doubt) hitting wood. “I won’t repeat myself: you will fund us as we’ve requested of you in finding the doctor Angela Zieglar or…”

  
Gunshots echoed in his ears. It was like being back in Gibraltar again, so long ago now and yet it was as though it was yesterday. Running through corridor after corridor, Jesse and Genji yelling at him to keep up before what felt like the whole world collapsed around them. And then there had been the doctor herself who had seen him with Jack’s jacket fastened around him and had turned tail and ran. It had been no surprise to see her do so, he had expected it the moment he had left the training area with his face bloodied and his hands shaking.

  
What he hadn’t expected was Gibraltar’s base to crumble under him, brick by brick. Nor had he expected to stop half way, the sound of screaming echoing throughout the base, and make his way back to the room he had left to find Jack crumbled to the floor, Ana pressed over him with her hands to his chest and the creature was…

  
Gabriel felt a stinging at the back of his eyes and sniffed hard, wiping the skin underneath his eyes roughly. It wasn’t the time to do this – he had wanted to confront Guillermo face-to-face, to be found out and be the threat to everything he held dear like Diego wanted him to be.

  
Now it didn’t seem worth it. None of it did.

  
He moved away from the door as fast as possible, his strides longer and clumsier than usual but all he could hear was the screams of Gibraltar biting at his heels, chasing him down the floors of stairs he had clambered up only a few minutes before.  
  


* * *

 

Sombra and Widowmaker exited the elevator to find themselves in a massive, golden circular room. There was no other way to describe it: the windows on the roof of the room to look out at Dorado’s stars were lined with gold around the wood so that it sparkled in the moonlight, the numerous statues (mostly, Widowmaker realized, statues of Guillermo Portero himself) lined against the walls of the room looked to be made of gold too and his desk…

  
“Ugh,” Widowmaker retched. “What a disgusting man with disgusting taste.”

  
The hacker shrugged and went towards Portero’s desk, thankfully not made of gold, and sat in the luxurious black leather chair with her feet propped up, a contented sigh leaving her lips. “Can’t believe the codes I used hadn’t been changed. You would have thought Portero would actually give some kinda shit about us breaking into his home twice but hey! No complaints from me!”

  
Widowmaker scoffed and went off behind the hacker to browse through the collection of books that Portero had. It always shocked her that even with how long she had been in the sea she could understand a various amount of languages and a high amount of dialects, even now browsing through books that were mostly Spanish she could still pick out books that were Greek, Latin and Chinese.

  
Some of it even reminded her of the language used when in the sea and a shark strayed too far into her territory. Some, mistaking her for a creature like themselves, had even tried to mate with her to the point she had lived off shark for a few weeks until her next meal had come foolishly along in search for her.

  
They always regretted it after.

  
“Eh sirena? Can you go and open that drawer to the left of his desk?” She heard Sombra call and when she turned around she saw that the hacker was attempting to hook her foot around one of the drawer’s handles.

_  
Imbecile._

  
She wrenched it open and watched as Sombra looked up at her with a sickly, sweet smile. “Aw thanks.”

  
“You are wasting time.”

  
“I’m not…wait a second.” Sombra lifted her free hand to her left ear as she continued her search through the drawer. “Gabito, what a surprise! Wait, wait, wait! Slow down! You’re going too fast, okay? What’s going…Eh? What? I’m not done!”

  
Widowmaker looked at her with confusion clear in the lines of her face right until Sombra removed her finger and threw an exaggerated eye roll her way. “Gabe is pissed about something so it looks like I’m going to have to speed this up. Try and not…” Before Sombra could finish Widowmaker perched her chin just above Sombra’s shoulder, looking at the computer screen that Sombra had pulled multiple files up on. “Wow okay you’re a little closer than I expected there but you do you.”

  
“These windows…” Widowmaker murmured, pointing at one in particular that had the LumeriCo logo on. “What are they for?”

  
“To show stuff, it’s no big deal just let me work.” Sombra replied, one hand hastily moving over the keyboard whilst the other started to pull at her jacket. “Help me take this off, yeah?”

  
Widowmaker grumbled but did what she was asked, removing the purple/pink jacket from Sombra’s shoulders to reveal her black tank and a spine that looked to be embedded with cybernetics. They thrummed at her touch, the curiosity of what else of the cyborg was near omnic in its appearance grabbing her attention away from the ticking time-bomb their male companion seemed to think was about to go off.

  
She hadn’t known how long she had touched it before Sombra’s head turned to give her a look that she couldn’t decipher, it seemed too much like a mixture of happiness and scorn. “Enjoying yourself?”

  
She scowled and bared her teeth (now back to the ‘human’ normal) at the other woman. “I am simply wondering what it is.”

  
“It helps me connect and upload data faster,” Sombra explained, serious once more as she typed away, closing window after window when she was done. To Widowmaker it looked more like the cyborg was doing nothing but she didn’t understand half of the technology of this world anymore, all she knew was that it had advanced the human race and even with what Sombra and Gabriel were doing, to her it seemed fruitless to resist something like that.

  
The urge to ask Sombra why she and Gabriel had teamed up with Los Muertos to do so was on the tip of her tongue again, but before Widowmaker could speak up the screen Sombra had been typing on suddenly went blank.

  
Sombra instantly turned on her. “I didn’t get everything on there! Did you press something?”

  
“I’ve not even touched this,” Widowmaker pointed accusingly at the computer in front of her companion, “comp-uter thing! I…”

  
It was just as Sombra looked ready to explode did the screen suddenly flickered to life, however this time the windows Sombra had been browsing beforehand were now nowhere to be seen. Instead the screen remained dark apart from a single white blip. It blipped once. Twice. Three times before the screen flashed and the face of Guillermo Portero filled the screen.

  
Widowmaker stepped back, head cocked to the side with a feeling of dread that gripped her stomach in a way she had not experienced for a _very_ long time.

  
When she looked over at Sombra she could see that she had turned pale, unbelievably so.

  
Guillermo looked to be in a conference room, his fingers pressed together to catch the weight of his chin. “So you are the woman the rest of Los Muertos seem to speak so highly of. What do they call you again, hmm?” He turned his head to seemingly address another who was off-screen. “Simmons?”

  
“Sombra, they call her Sombra.”

  
“And you seem to have just the thing Mr Simmons is looking for, right over your shoulder…”

  
Sombra glanced at her, eyes narrowed. Widowmaker looked back, searching for the explanation in the hacker’s face on what their next move would be, on what they were to do next, if the hacker herself knew what she was…

  
“Fuck it,” Sombra swore under her breath, moving from the chair and shrugging her jacket back on. “Let’s go sirena, let’s…”

  
“Perhaps you won’t be so quick to leave if I show you what’s waiting for your Los Muertos friends,” Guillermo interrupted with a bored, half-hearted chuckle. “Or at least what’s left of them. You see, you’re not as clever as I thought you would be. Disappointing really.”

  
Widowmaker watched as Sombra paused and turned back to the screen, her jaw clenched so hard that she swore she could hear the grinding of the hacker’s teeth.

  
“You see,” Guillermo continued with another laugh, “I half expected you to have at least made sure the rest of your gang was safe for the time being as you and Mr Reyes carried on this ‘mission’. Could you imagine my surprise when in reality I found your latest hide out completely unprotected? Which, speaking of unprotected…”

  
A series of camera shots were revealed on the screen. The first Widowmaker guessed to be the Los Muertos base Guillermo had mentioned, a building set on fire with stragglers that limped out in small segments, alive perhaps but in her opinion? Not for much longer.

  
When she looked at Sombra she could see the same answer deep in the fury that lined the woman’s face. It worsened into a grimace when the sound of gunshots were heard and the hacker’s eyes darkened with a fury that made Widowmaker cock her head to the side, both curious and (though she’d never admit it) surprised. The hacker didn’t seem to deal in extremes when it came to expressing herself, especially through her emotions, but the look of resentment that had settled in her face…

  
Widowmaker had known man and fury before. But this? This was something different.

  
“You shot them, for what?” Sombra muttered under her breath, her voice entirely different from what Widowmaker recognized.

  
“To show you that no matter how much you upgrade yourself, no matter how far ahead you seem to be…” Guillermo paused to take a sip of his water, the smug glint in his eye unmistakable. “We can and will find you Sombra, no—“

  
“Find this!” Sombra interjected and with an angry grunt Widowmaker watched as the hacker simply pulled the computer from its wiring with such force that sparks came from its wires and only stopped when Sombra had chucked it into the bookcase behind them, breathing heavily as she did so.

  
Silence soon became an awkward, unfriendly companion that made Widowmaker turn to glance at the other woman with something that felt too human for her liking. Sympathy perhaps, or if not then the understanding of suddenly being ripped from a place that she had felt like she belonged. The only difference being, Widowmaker supposed, was that Sombra actually remembered having a place there whereas she only had fragments of a life that did not even _feel_ like her own.

  
Still there was nothing she could have said to comfort the woman. As much as she was cyborg, Widowmaker knew the hacker had humanity deep within her despite how she acted and because of that there was a place inside Sombra that she had no chance in reaching. Nor did she want to. Humans were humans and Widowmaker had never wanted anything to do with them or the things they did outside of surviving.

  
And this, partnering with them right now, that was a way of surviving surely?

  
“Gabe, you hear me?” Sombra interrupted her thoughts by whispering into her commlink, her voice strained. “Yeah? You need to get outta here, just pull out and meet me at the coordinates I send you. What?” Widowmaker felt Sombra’s eyes on her and turned to meet the other woman with a hard stare. “Yeah she’s fine. Look they know we’re here, okay? No, no _! Gabe I didn’t trigger any fucking alarms!_ Just do what I say and get out! And don’t go back to our place. No I know you’re not an idiot just…Okay just shut up.”

  
Sombra retracted her finger from her ear with a groan, shaking her heard. To Widowmaker she looked as though she was about to say something else to herself but promptly stopped after realizing she wasn’t alone.

  
Instead she chuckled dryly, the insincerity in it overwhelmingly obvious. “You didn’t even fire that damn rifle once, you know?”

  
Just before she could respond the sound of the windows above them shattering filled the air. It was in that moment Widowmaker felt herself pushed to the ground, the smaller woman’s elbow pressed into her stomach and one of the shaved sides of her head practically pinned her shoulder to the couch they had managed to overturn in the process.

  
Widowmaker blinked. “You’re…pressing into my snipe.”

  
“Yeah about that,” Sombra muttered as she clambered off of her, barely able to be heard over the sounds of the boots that were now on the ground. “Remember how to use it? Because you’re going to need it.”

  
Widowmaker unhooked the leather from around her shoulder and stared at the metal in her hands. That Sombra was willing to go into a fire fight so quickly with her inexperienced the way she was?

  
“Cyborg…” She started to say.

  
“Look, we’ll talk about this after we get rid of these goons, okay?” Sombra whispered over her harshly, eyes narrowed in impatience. “Just watch my back.”

  
With a growl Widowmaker pressed her back to the couch and got into position.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT: Hey guys, comments really do mean a lot to me and to be honest if I don't get /any/? 
> 
> I don't feel like writing anymore. As much as I want to. So every little comment helps, trust me.


	5. Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the heat of Los Muertos' destruction, Sombra and Widowmaker butt heads.

Widowmaker had seen worse odds than this.  
  


As much as the adrenaline thrummed through her and made her hands on the snipe tremble slightly, the reminder that she had fought greater, bigger things than the simple squad of men in front of her made the whole thing seem worthless to even contemplate. After all, one of her first memories had been taking down what she had learned later to be known as a ‘submarine’, tearing the metal away with her claws bit by bit and chewing through the human inhabitants like she had never eaten before.  
  


Perhaps she hadn’t. Her first memories were always the ones that seemed the most deceitful. And yet here she was, sitting next to Sombra – a hacker, liar and murderer all in one form.  
  


Maybe it was meant to be.  
  


Sombra glanced over at her with a nasty glint in her eye. “So, you know what they want with you or are you just as stumped as I am?” When she didn’t answer straight away the hacker scoffed and shook her head. “Perfect. Fucking perfect.”  
  


Widowmaker felt her stomach tense and the same, almost friendly, anger rear its ugly, bestial head.  “This _isn’t_ the time!”  
  


“Damn right it isn’t,” Sombra muttered in response. She turned around to fire a few supressing shots at the gunmen Guillermo had sent out before she slumped back down next to Widowmaker with a scowl. “Hey sirena, gonna use that ‘snipe’ of yours any time soon? I’m gonna try and get round them, but it’s not going to be any good if you’re just—“  
  


She interrupted the hacker by dropping the rifle altogether, wrenching the other woman over to her by the scruff of her collar until they were nearly pressed nose-to-nose.  
  


“You,” Widowmaker growled, her fangs now curled over her lower lip and her fingers sharpened into the talons of her true form, “ _are getting on my nerves_.”  
  


“Yeah well, you’re getting on mine too!” Sombra retorted with a roll of her eyes. She managed to pull out of Widowmaker’s grip, but barely, the fabric of her coat visibly stretched from the siren’s talons. “Either do something worth doing or I’ll throw you to them, got it?”  
  


“You want me to do something?” Widowmaker argued, fully aware of the multiple eyes that had started to protrude on her forehead now that her fury had started to pick away at her human form, piece by piece.  
  


“I’d love if you did!” Sombra yelled, hardly able to be heard over the sound of the spray of bullets coming from Guillermo’s goons. “If I’m going around them, then—“  
  


“Enough!” Widowmaker interrupted her with a snarl. It was almost as if a spell had been broken, but she knew the real truth of the intoxicating freedom she felt in letting her anger coil itself around her.  
  


She looked down at her arms and saw that the blue of her skin had darkened, the smooth skin immediately replaced with the same, harsh scales that had been there longer than she could even remember. And then there were her fingers. Her talons had replaced her nails a few moments before, but now her fingers were webbed, stuck together in that familiar way she had always found annoying rather than beneficial. They were good for clawing at things, though not much else. But she supposed that was why her incisors were so sharp: otherwise she would have starved long ago. That was, of course, if she completely disregarded her wings.  
  


Widowmaker felt the push of muscle and bone at her shoulder blades and embraced the pain with a high, shrill scream. It echoed across Guillermo’s office and caused the glass of the cases of artefacts to rattle, then, after a moment of silence, shatter.  
  


Widowmaker snapped her attention towards her equally silent companion, who only looked at her with wide, bulging eyes.  
  


“Uhhh.”  
  


“You said do something,” Widowmaker whispered, throwing the snipe at the woman beside her with a grunt. “So I did. Now stay out of my way!”  
  


Sombra instantly backed up against the overturned sofa, hands in the air. “Hey, hey no arguments from me!”  
  


Widowmaker ignored the hacker and raised herself from the ground. The scent of sweat and urine lingered in the air and it didn’t take her long to move away from the protection of the sofa to find out where it had come from.  
  


The men whom Guillermo had sent after them were currently bleeding from their ears, eyes closed in pain whilst their bodies trembled, feet kicking out sporadically as though they were running from something. A pity, Widowmaker thought briefly, that they did not realize that no matter how far they ran she would only be a few steps behind.  
  


She kicked out at one of them until he rolled onto his back, eyelids peeled back to show the whites of his eyes.  
  


“Sombra, you can come out.” She muttered over her shoulder, eyes immediately drawn to the thin, flesh-like wings that now flapped around impatiently. It would have been laughable to say that they had a mind of their own, but sometimes Widowmaker genuinely thought they did with these small movements that she had no control over. Or maybe it was simpler than she gave it credit for: maybe she had missed flying just as much as she missed…  
  


There was that blank in her memory again. It happened sometimes in even the smallest thoughts, where she would be thinking of something utterly trivial only to feel a sense of longing that had not been there before.  
  


Sometimes she felt so human it was sickening.  
  


Footsteps betrayed the hacker’s presence yet when Widowmaker turned to look at her, Sombra didn’t seem to even register her at all, gaze focused intently on the unconscious men that surrounded them.  
  


She opened her mouth to address the cyborg but stopped herself when a look of complete resentment crossed the other woman’s face and with a yell she kicked the nearest man in the face. His neck snapped up at the impact and blood spurted from his nose, painting the soles of Sombra’s shoes with flecks of crimson.  
  


Widowmaker watched as Sombra continued her assault. To her it felt as though she was watching something in the cyborg yield under pressure, as though something very real had begun to unravel inside of Sombra to reveal a part of her that Widowmaker couldn’t help but be fascinated by. So fascinated that she couldn’t find it in herself to look away: red eyes fastened to the locked jaw of the cyborg for a moment to then traverse, slow and steady, down towards Sombra’s white knuckles and the fury behind each swing of her kick.  
  


There was power in hatred and to see it on Sombra’s face made Widowmaker fall silent in every sense of the word. Her thoughts had already run dry by the third kick, her eyes unable to find anything else of interest, her wings fluttered to a standstill as if in awe and her ears could not hear anything but the rush of blood and Sombra’s pained, heavy breathing.  
  


It was when Widowmaker recognized that her own breathing was heavier than usual did she snap out of it. She narrowed her eyes and cursed silently at herself with a shake of her head.  
  


“Finished?” She managed to strain out past her chapped lips.  
  


Sombra looked up at her, eyes dark and brow furrowed. Sweat steadily dripped from her forehead, some even curving around the bone of her cheek to settle and then fall from her chin.  
  


It was possibly the most attractive look Widowmaker had ever seen on the hacker.  
  


(That was of course not including the time she had previously tried to eat her.)  
  


She watched, attentive, as Sombra straitened up and without even as much as flinching, rubbed the blood off her shoe, before using her elbow to be rid of the tracks of sweat on her forehead.  
  


When Sombra finally returned her gaze the smug smirk that was there made Widowmaker step back, suddenly alert.  
  


“Well, that was freeing!” Sombra jeered with a laugh, stretching her arms behind her back until they cricked and she let out a satisfied groan before quickly turning her attention back onto Widowmaker. “Right, right. You’re still…looking like that then.”  
  


Widowmaker scoffed. “It is my natural form. One, may I add, that will help in getting us out of here.” To prove her point she focused hard and flexed her wings until they swooped up and down hard enough that Sombra’s hair fluttered with each sweep. “Or am I interrupting you kicking the remnants of life out of these men? If we are not careful then that man, this Portero, will send…”  
  


“More of them. Yeah I know.” Sombra said with a sigh as she raked her hands up and down her scalp.  
  


Widowmaker thought she was going to say something more but without any preamble or any sense of warning the other woman merely walked up to her and patted her wings. “You’re a real box of horrors you know?”  
  


She had not interacted with humans long enough to truly understand too much of them but Widowmaker knew when they were trying to deflect something. Sombra, she thought dryly, seemed to an expert at it. It was as if the cyborg did not feel the need to explain anything about herself and that even if she did put a voice to her curiosity it would only lead down a rabbit hole, one with twists and turns that would only frustrate her as time went on.  
  


At least she knew now that Gabriel Reyes was not the only one of the two that was clouded in mystery.  
  


Widowmaker pointedly flapped her wings. “Come, hold onto me so I can get us out of here.”  
  


Sombra arched a lone brow. “You’re telling me you can fly too? So what’s that, flying, mind-control and razor sharp talons? Oh and the…multiple eye thing you’ve got going on there.”  
  


Widowmaker knocked the snipe out of Sombra’s hands and grabbed them to place on her hips. “Hold.”  
  


“Eh who knew you would be so forward with me si- whoa!” Widowmaker cut the other woman off before she could finish with a scoff, launching herself up into the air with such force that it took only mere moments for her to be past the now windowless roof and into the starlit sky of Dorado.  
  


Widowmaker felt the grip around her waist tighten and before she knew it the cyborg had wrapped her legs around her too, her panicked breathing suddenly being the only thing she could hear scurrying through her ears.  
  


Widowmaker felt the fear in the cyborg’s touch and felt a thrill travel up her spine until she couldn’t help but stare at Sombra over her shoulder, a sharp grin plastered onto her face. “You’re scared of heights?”  
  


“Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit…!”  
  


 Well. That answered her question.  
  


With a scream of delight Widowmaker flapped her wings and allowed her body to freely sail through the sky. She turned, briefly, to watch LumeriCo’s building fade further and further away until it the dark clouds robbed it from her gaze completely.  
  


When she paused mid-air Sombra’s grip around her tightened. “Do NOT stop!”  
  


“You’re not going to fall,” Widowmaker reassured the cyborg with a click of her tongue. She moved her hands to fold over Sombra’s left arm and slowly, but surely, began to pull the other woman away. “Stop screaming you foolish girl! I’ve…” When Sombra’s screams looked as though they were about to continue Widowmaker sneered and without hesitation removed Sombra’s grip around from her entirely, pausing only for a moment before she threw the other woman into the air.  
  


“WIDOWMAKER WHAT ARE YOU—“  
  


Widowmaker positioned herself with her arms spread under the cyborg just in time to catch her, a smug look on her face that she was almost disappointed the other woman couldn’t see because of her eyes being tightly shut.  
  


It was only a few seconds after the realization that she was not falling through the air did Sombra open her eyes. She cracked them open bit by bit until Widowmaker’s gaze couldn’t help but be drawn to the dark purple eyes that were wide with horror, but also an undeniable curiosity that stunned the hacker into silence.  
  


Widowmaker laughed at the look. “For once you are speechless.”  
  


Sombra regained her senses then, throwing a glare the siren’s way. “Hey! You’re telling me you wouldn’t act the same if I’d done that to you?” She looked at the ground far below them and audibly gulped. “Fuck that’s far. I can’t even see half of it through the clouds and… Shit, we need to meet up with Gabe!”  
  


“Would you not prefer to go to the Los Muertos base and look for survivors?” Widowmaker asked. She was unsure why she had but the hard look that had been on the hacker’s face before did not want to leave the front of her mind. It had been a strange, rough look that despite not knowing the woman that long at all, Widowmaker was certain she would never get used to seeing it on Sombra.  
  


The same expression appeared as if by clockwork and Widowmaker could only watch as Sombra shook her head and turned her face away. “No point. If there’s survivors they’ll know where to go.”  
  


“And if there aren’t any?”  
  


Sombra’s face remained hidden. “Then there aren’t any.”  
  


Widowmaker nodded and with a huge intake of breath, swooped down through the clouds to look for the safehouse they had been in before their attack on LumeriCo. To her every house looked the same but then again, she had only seen Dorado through glimpses of the city when she had been tracking her prey – hardly enough time for it to make an impression on her. And of course there were times when she hardly ever surfaced to even take a glimpse at it, sometimes other things seemed that much more important. Things that she couldn’t remember the name of.  
  


That was her lot in life. Memories that were snatched away to resurface later on in the most unexpected ways. If she was lucky.  
  


She shook her head. Now was not the time to think about herself. “Am I close to the safehouse?”  
  


The cyborg, who had been silent for most of their journey now that she had calmed down, gazed over Dorado’s city walls. She remained quiet for a while until suddenly she pinched Widowmaker’s arm and pointed over at a small building that looked as though it had seen better days. Widowmaker wasn’t shocked per se to see that it was that place of all places Sombra and Gabriel deemed as being a ‘safehouse’, but rather with their connections the possibility of them having a place more up to date with Dorado’s infrastructure didn’t appear unlikely.  
  


By the time she had settled down next to the building (and Sombra had jumped out of her arms, gracelessly as ever) Widowmaker apprehended that the building was in fact not the building they had been in previously. What she did appreciate however was that she had been right in thinking it looked as dour up close as it did from in the sky: the house had cracks lining from the bottom right to the top, near the roof and that didn’t even consider the rusted windows, nor the grime that surrounded the door’s handle.  
  


Widowmaker sniffed in disdain. “This is what you would call a safehouse?”  
  


“It’ll do, won’t it?” Sombra snapped. She wasn’t facing her as she talked, but Widowmaker allowed it. Whatever was going on with the cyborg (and Widowmaker could guess _what_ that something was) she felt it best not to pry, at least not just yet. They still had things to do: hiding from LumeriCo being one of them.  
  


She looked up over the hills of Dorado’s city to see that same giant L blinking in the distance. It didn’t look any different from a few hours before, but what was in there, the darkness of the men they had peered in at…  
  


Widowmaker couldn’t forget that so easily.  
  


It would be wrong to say that she empathized with the loss of Los Muertos. To her they were mere tools that did not seem to understand that they could not stop the future. The only thing that remotely pained her (and she most certainly used the word ‘pained’ loosely) was that Sombra and Gabriel were part of the group, even in spite of their superior intellect that told her they were suited for better things.  
  


She would have voiced that if Sombra didn’t look as though she would have clawed her face off for even suggesting it. Instead she said, “when did you become afraid of heights?”  
  


Sombra, as Widowmaker had predicted to herself a few moments before, glowered at her. “About ten minutes ago when a spindly, eight-eyed siren decided to lift me up from the ground without any warning. Why do you ask?” And before Widowmaker could respond the cyborg rushed towards the rusted windows to peer inside. “You know something, azul? This small-talk thing is very human of you.”  
  


“Small-talk?” Widowmaker retorted. “There is nothing small about my talk!”  
  


“No, I mean!” Sombra moved away from the window with an exasperated sigh, “I mean that you’re talking for the sake of it, alright? You’re just trying to steer the conversation away from the real issue here.”  
  


Widowmaker cocked her head to the side and shrugged. “You mean the demise of your fellows, the Los Muertos gang?”  
  


She watched as Sombra’s posture changed almost immediately, her spine tensed and her shoulders lifted together rigidly and the look of simmering resentment encased in the small laugh lines of her face was unmistakable. Widowmaker had seen the look on humans before when she had watched them, unnoticed. Many of the individuals here in Dorado were angry and all of them seemed to throw said anger at the person nearest to them.  
  


Sombra, as cybernetic as she was, did not seem to be that much different. “Am I wrong?”  
  


“Look, you don’t get what you’re talking about, okay? You’re just some underwater creature that shouldn’t even exist!” Sombra said, voice growing louder than she perhaps realized. Widowmaker would have mentioned it but it didn’t seem worth it, not when she could tell she had clearly hit a nerve. “What LumeriCo just did? It’s fucking _evil_.”  
  


“They squashed their rivals who did not accept that change is part of the natural order of things,” Widowmaker replied simply because it _was_ simple. Everything about what had happened. It was simply a chain, a chain of what was to be expected from the world in which they lived in. “To me that is not evil, it is a response that was to be expected.”  
  


Seconds later, Sombra exploded, throwing her hands up into the air. “Are you out of your mind?! You helped me get inside! You helped Gabe!”  
  


“If you recall, I had no choice in the matter.”  
  


“So what? You’re telling me that them wiping out a faction of people that disagreed with them was to be expected?”  
  


“Portero is a businessman who has security, that, we have both seen for ourselves,” Widowmaker answered calmly. “But the people that attacked your base? You are clever, girl. You and I both know they were not ordinary security. Whoever the other man was next to Portero, it is he who called in the attack.”  
  


“Again! So. What?” Sombra had gotten closer to her now, her anger overriding the fear that she had previously felt. “Don’t you understand what I’m trying to tell you? Can’t you get it through your thick, siren skull?” With an angry grunt Widowmaker watched as the cyborg pointed wildly at the LumeriCo building off into the distance. “It doesn’t matter if Guillermo Portero was wielding the knife or not, he still had something to do with it! He still killed people for no other reason apart from they disagreed with him! How can you say that isn’t…”  
  


“You are emotional.” Widowmaker interrupted with a wave of her hand that cut over Sombra immediately. “You say my attempt at this small talk makes me human? I only see what happened through a very obvious chain: the strong devours the weak. You were unprepared, or from what I know of you, perhaps you were cocky rather than unprepared. Because of this your guard was down and Portero took advantage of it.” She held out her talons to present the cyborg with her open palm. “You see my hand, yes? I am not human like you, nor Gabriel. I see things differently and I am aware of our differences.”  
  


“What has that got to do with anything?” Sombra spat, arms crossed around her chest.  
  


“Because I am aware that with our differences the obvious to me does not seem so obvious to you.” Widowmaker explained with a shrug. The woman in front of her looked as fiery as ever but she could not find it in herself to care, there was too much for her to say now that the opportunity had presented itself. “I am empathetic towards what happened to your group, however your survival just proves the obvious: you and Gabriel were stronger than they were—“  
  


“It’s not about strength, you stupid fish—!“  
  


Before Sombra could argue any further the sound of glass being rapped drew both of their attention away, gazes turned to find that none other than Gabriel Reyes watched them from the other side, his bloody knuckles pressed to the glass.  
  


Widowmaker looked into his dull eyes and saw that he already knew what had happened, it was sketched so clearly, so artistically, over his gaunt face. She was certain it was what made him turn away from them only seconds later, his features lost in the shadows the safehouse provided.  
  


The sound of the door opening could not be missed. Gabriel had obviously forced it open with his shoulder and the impact of it sent the birds that had been brave enough not to fly off in fear at the sight of her, flapping away in a hasty retreat.  
  


Sombra looked over at her with a look that clearly said that she would not be forgetting their previous conversation before she gestured to the door with a nod, turning quickly to head on inside.  
  


The safehouse, if that was what they were to call it, looked as though it had been abandoned for some time. Cobwebs were splayed over the corners of the windows and hung from the ceiling, the floorboards underneath her feet creaked with each step and the whole space lacked furniture of any kind apart from a single moth-bitten rug and an ugly, old lamp.  
  


The rug could have been any colour but Widowmaker figured it now would forever be a dark red with how Gabriel was lying on it, the hand pressed to his side dripping with blood. Sombra predictably joined him moments later, her own hands pressed against his to help stem the bleeding. “What the hell happened?”  
  


“Jumped out a window trying to get away from security, not my most clever move I know,” Gabriel admitted with a laugh. He looked at her from over Sombra’s shoulder, a look she could not decipher on his face. “They didn’t capture you then?”  
  


Widowmaker averted her gaze and shrugged. “So you were aware of them wanting me.”  
  


He tried to sit up but hissed as a spike of pain went through him, sending him sprawling back to the floor and into Sombra’s arms. “I knew Portero wanted you, but not why.” He turned to look at Sombra with a frown. “It’s a group that we’ve heard of: Talon.”  
  


Sombra groaned half-heartedly. “Great! Those jerks, huh? Well, explains where LumeriCo got all the firepower from.”  
  


“Yeah, you’re telling me.” Gabriel replied with a wince as he once more attempted to sit up straight. “I heard something else too, something that might—“  
  


“Is it about the rest of Los Muertos?” Sombra interrupted, the desperation in her tone obvious despite her attempt to mask it.  
  


But from the look of confusion on Gabriel’s face it was clear to Widowmaker that he had no idea what she was talking about. At least she had been wrong on him hearing it, but then again, maybe it would have been kinder.  
  


She sighed. It would do no good for Sombra to explain it, it would take too long and with the way they were, injured and at a loss on what to do? The answer was simple: they had nothing to gain and a lot to lose.  
  


“The rest of your Los Muertos gang perished while we were attacking LumeriCo.” Widowmaker put it as blunt as possible, promptly ignoring the way Gabriel’s face fell and the tension that reappeared in Sombra’s shoulders. “It is something that is to be expected if these Talon thugs are to be feared as you two seem to fear them.”  
  


“We’re not scared of them!”  
  


“Sombra, enough now.” Gabriel interrupted the other woman’s protests with a hand, chin pressed to his chest to hide his expression. “Did there look like there would be a possibility of any survivors?”  
  


Widowmaker remembered the screams as though they were occurring right outside. She had heard those sorts of screams before, had even been the cause of them for the majority of it, and if there was one thing that could make noise like that it was the dead or the soon to be.  
  


She shook her head all the same. “To me? No.”  
  


“You would say that.” Sombra muttered under her breath. “They know this safehouse. If there are survivors they’ll be here by tomorrow.” Widowmaker opened her mouth to protest that course of action when Sombra cut past her, determined to speak. “We’ve got sympathizers inside of Dorado itself, if they can’t find a way here by tonight then it’ll be by tomorrow. All of us were trained to know the general procedure, right Gabe?”  
  


Gabriel remained silent and briefly Widowmaker thought he had fainted with how his eyes were closed and his body slumped in Sombra’s arms. That thought was instantly squashed when he sighed and removed his hand away from his side to run over his head, shoving the beanie aside to flop into Sombra’s lap.  
  


He looked as though he had nowhere to run. Widowmaker could understand that: none of them did.  
  


“We’ll rest here tonight and wait for people to turn up.” He finally said, his voice hitching with emotion for a split second before he cleared his throat and thumped his fist against his chest. “Tomorrow we’ll assess everything. Talon’s involvement, why they might be after Widowmaker and more importantly: why they’re after Angela Ziegler.”  
  


Sombra pulled back from him, head cocked to the side. “Angela Ziegler? Her? She’s a genius in science and medical technology, isn’t she?”  
  


Gabriel smiled hard around the cough that spluttered out of his lips. “Y-yeah. Among other things, or so I’ve heard. But that’s enough for tonight.” He pulled off his shirt with a pained noise, glaring at the cut skin where glass had managed to pierce him. It had either been glass or bullets and Gabriel knew which one he preferred. At least with glass he could easily pick it out like so, and all he had to do now was apply some pressure and…  
  


“Way to ruin your favourite shirt, Gabe,” Sombra snickered but the effort behind it was hardly there. Widowmaker didn’t understand why she bothered to even try and hide her feelings, but then again, Sombra seemed one of a kind. “Hey, that’s not tight enough. Yeesh, you’re terrible at this…”  
  


“Stop mothering me…”  
  


Widowmaker turned and walked to the opposite corner furthest away from the two of them. She didn’t expect them to notice or care what she did at the moment, too preoccupied with false hope and fantasies that she had no interest in being part of. For her it didn’t seem anything but a waste of time, time where she could be doing other things.  
  


She sighed as her wings withdrew back into her shoulder blades, the leathery material cracking as they twisted and warped back inside the holes that they had punctured through Gabriel’s sweater during her transformation. It hurt only for a moment, before with a final snapping noise Widowmaker pressed her back against the wall and slid down it, eyes closed in relief as the pain started to ebb away.  
  


From behind her eyes she felt the other three pairs that had protruded from her forehead start to slowly sink back into place. Unlike her wings it was like a tickling sensation rather than something hurtful, but by the time she felt each eye return Widowmaker realized that she was feeling dizzier than ever.  
  


Perhaps she had overdone it in her anger to prove useful. It had been a long time since she had gone all out like that and she still had her talons and fingers left to transform.  
  


Widowmaker groaned and rolled her shoulders to get some feeling back to them. If she was to morph her body back into her human form she would at least need some of the numbness to dissipate and maybe even something…  
  


A flash of purple caught her eye. Widowmaker turned to see that the hacker had plopped herself down a few feet away from her, knees propped up against her chin and her eyes half-shut. Not shut enough to stop her from staring at her, of course.  
  


“Will neither of you leave me be for more than a moment?” Widowmaker uttered with a sulky shake of her head. “I am not going anywhere, there is no place for me _to_ go.”  
  


Sombra smirked. “We’re near the harbour from here and your arm…” She pointed at her and Widowmaker understood that Sombra was indeed righh, her wounded arm didn’t look nearly as bad as it had last night. “Doesn’t look too bad. Besides I wouldn’t even blame you if you did leave, Talon are some nasty enemies to have.”  
  


Widowmaker made it a point to look away from her companion. “You are foolish to think I am afraid of any human.”  
  


“Pft, if that’s what you can call them.” Sombra replied. From the corner of her eye Widowmaker could see she had pulled up her screens again, moving through them with haste that only tripled in speed by the time she had managed to expose the cybernetics of her spine once more. “Anyway. I was told to watch you by Gabe, so don’t get your panties in a twist about it, alright?”  
  
  
“You humans and your expressions,” Widowmaker huffed, tilting her head to the side to see that Sombra had paused her search to look directly at her. “You expect me to believe that you, of all people, can follow orders? Hmph.”  
  


Sombra responded by simply poking her tongue out of her before she snickered quietly to herself and turned away, absorbed once more in transferring the data she had collected at LumeriCo into her systems.  
  


In the light of her screens she looked younger and unperturbed by the world as any person should be, but Widowmaker had a feeling that Sombra’s lack of care was a bigger lie than she cared to think of no matter how she looked or acted. The way the cyborg had turned on her, the maliciousness behind her eyes and the determination in each wrinkle of her nose…  
  


Sombra was as puzzling as every other human Widowmaker had encountered was. And yet she didn’t even seem a lick like them.  
  


Widowmaker exhaled heavily. Now was not the time to think too much on it, now was the time to transform and somehow get some sleep in this ridiculously dusty, cramped safehouse that didn’t even look the part.  
  


Or that was what she had hoped to achieve but Sombra’s eyes still couldn’t leave her be, no matter how hard the other woman tried to preoccupy herself.  
  


She curled her fingers into a fist and bit her lip at the shot of pain that coiled in the center of her palms because of her talons. She held onto that feeling until that too faded away and when she opened her palm her talons and webbed fingers were nowhere to be seen.  
  


“Does that hurt?”  
  


Widowmaker studied the indents her talons had left in her palms, addressing Sombra with a small shrug. “It is what it is.”  
  


Sombra sneered beside her. “I’ll take that as your fishy way of saying yes.”  
  


Silence fell upon them and for that Widowmaker was grateful. It would already be uncomfortable enough trying to get to sleep pressed against the wall as she was, but with no furniture around apart from the heavy rug that Gabriel now slept on there was hardly any room for complaint. At least with a quiet Sombra next to her the chance of sleep would rise, even if only a little.  
  


She closed her eyes and tried to picture a time when she could remember more than just waking up at the bottom of the ocean, but to no avail. Her first memory always made its way to the front of her mind no matter how many times she tried to avoid it, and after fighting it (like always) she eventually caved and let the memory wash over her until she could understand it – bit by bit. Apart from there was nothing to understand about the stillness of the location, nor the overpowering darkness that lived there.  
  


Widowmaker had been born in one of the biggest holes in the world: the ocean.  
  


It only made sense that her knowledge of it made her feel so small.


	6. Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sombra and Gabriel clash. Widowmaker reveals the true source of her distress and who is Angela Ziegler?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Normally I'd check the FUCK outta this. But it's been more than 3 months and you guys deserved to read it as soon as possible. So here you are: an update for Siren of Dorado, finally!

**G** abriel shivered and opened his eyes to see a glimpse of light filtering through the window beside him, casting the previously dark room with a ray of colour from the morning sun. And still, even seeing the golden ray, he couldn’t deny the icy feeling that had settled in his bones overnight.

He pushed himself up (and promptly ignored the strain he felt in his hip at the sharp movement) to see that Sombra was already awake, typing away at her violet, hexagonal screens languidly. Beside her he could just about make out a mass of blue hair propped on her shoulder where the siren had fallen on the hacker in her sleep, an unexpected and unlikely pair indeed.

He arched a single eyebrow with a small laugh escaping past his lips before he could stop himself. “Have you been awake all night again?”

Sombra didn’t bother looking at him. “Yep. Had to keep an eye out on both your majesty and you. Especially you.”

“And her?”

Sombra looked over at the siren resting on her shoulder for a moment before she glanced back over at him with a frown. “Look if I woke her up just because she was leaning on me it means I’d have to talk to her, okay? It’s not that deep, you know?”

He shook his head, grinning. “If I didn’t know better I’d say you liked one another.”

Sombra snorted. “Yeah we’re the best of pals.” She rolled her eyes and with a grunt, knocked the siren away from her with her elbow. The siren fortunately managed to stay upright, however her neck was craned in a position Gabriel winced at, to Sombra’s annoyance. “Oh fine! Let me just right her…There. Happy?”

He watched as her eyes averted from him and back to the screens in front of her. It didn’t take a genius to see she was ignoring him on purpose, but he expected as much. Sombra had decided earlier on during their first meeting with one another that she would only show him the parts she wanted to see and that was that. A great feat in theory, but even Sombra, one of the most exceptional beings he had come across, couldn’t quite keep that promise no matter how much she tried. And she was definitely trying, he knew that without even looking too closely at the worried glance she kept throwing towards the window of the safehouse every five minutes.

Gabriel sighed and rearranged himself as best as he could on the stained rug he laid on. It ended up with him wincing slightly to draw Sombra’s attention back onto him, her mouth strained into a firm, solid line. “You’re gonna pull something if you keep moving like that, Gabe.” Then when he didn’t answer she rolled her eyes, removed the screens away from her face and stood up, hands on hips. “Eh, I’m serious. Quit it. You’re gonna be useless to us if you get sick because your stubborn ass pushes himself too far. Oh and on that note,” she pointed at the siren behind her with a jerk of her thumb, “mind pulling your head out of that ass of yours to tell me what connection you have with her in the first place?”

“Connection?” Gabriel said, confusion clear in his expression.

“Don’t play dumb with me Gabito. Ever since we found our way into Dorado you’ve always been interested in her, this-this _myth_ around a creature that I can’t even find in my databases!” Sombra whispered harshly, crouching slightly so they were eye-to-eye. “You know who I am and you know what I can do—”

Gabriel, despite himself and the pain he felt, snarled and glared at her. “Don’t forget our promise, Sombra!”

“Give me a good reason why I shouldn’t break it when you’re holding back on me here!” Sombra muttered harshly. “I’ve been patient, trust me. I could have turned this on you the moment we had time alone together to ask why the hell you were there that night at the docks, but—”

“Drop it,” Gabriel interrupted and with a groan he hoisted himself up to his full height, hand clutched to his waist until the pain he felt in his jaw due to his gritted teeth and the sting of his hip seemed to mesh into one. “There are some things I can’t tell you about me, just like there are some things you can’t tell me about you, isn’t there?” When Sombra didn’t answer he let out a frustrated growl and pressed on. “Isn’t there?”

Sombra, as he had expected, pushed away from him with a grunt, turning away from him. “You wanna play it like that? Fine. Is there anything you _can_ tell me, asshole?”

He pointedly looked outside. From where they were situated they weren’t far from the docks and he could hear both the ocean’s waves lapping at the pier and the sound of the morning’s fishermen arriving with their equipment, bustling and laughing between each other as though nothing had changed at all overnight. For them it hadn’t, they were not aware of the creature of their nightmares sleeping soundly only a few feet away, nor the dark cloud that surrounded they who had chosen to shelter her rather than give her away.

And of course, just as he had secretly expected, there was no suggestion that the rest of Los Muertos was anywhere to be found.

He walked slowly (still tender) towards the cracked window of the safehouse and leant against it. “Nobody came to find us overnight.” A flash of a boyish face entered the front of his mind and he sighed. “Not even Raiz. And he knew for certain that if there was a problem he was to come here as fast as he could and…” He trailed off with a shrug that was lighter than he felt.

Sombra joined him at the window, peering out at the fishermen that had started to throw out their baskets and rods into the water. Her face was hard to read and so Gabriel didn’t try, allowing their old companion silence to join them for a few moments more.

Gabriel didn’t bother to hide his own surprise at him being the one to break it, his brow arched towards the woman next to him. “We’re on our own again.”

She scoffed and twirled a strand of purple hair around her static-laced gloves. “I can’t remember a time we’ve not been.” She glanced over at him, her lips formed into a hard line. “So what’s the next course of action, _boss?_ ”

The sarcasm in her tone was something he very much noted, however as always, it was nowhere near the time to address it seriously. The walls that hid them from their aggressors were closing in on them and all he could do was think, the last weapon he had left to try and defend both himself, Sombra and the siren from the horrors that awaited them if they were to be caught.

It felt like hadn’t left Gibraltar at all – people still depended on him and he, despite everything, still depended on them.

He closed his eyes to block away that thought before it festered into something beyond his control. It was time to focus, even if it was on something that caused his chest to feel tight as though he was slowly running out of breath.

“Angela Ziegler,” he murmured, turning towards Sombra with a shake of his head. “Do you know where she’s located?”

Sombra, to his surprise, regarded him with a look that could only be described as sinister. “Nope.”

“Sombra…” He growled. “If you’re playing games with me…”

“If only! If I was then it would make finding her easier,” she replied with a shrug. “She went off the grid a long time ago, her last signature on the ‘interwebs’,” she emphasised the ridiculous word with her fingers in a way that made him roll his eyes, “was nine years ago. Which according to my maths, which may I add, is really fucking bad…” She flourished her hand and a bright pink calculator formed in front of them, subtracting and adding numbers at a pace he couldn’t keep up with before it twisted and turned into a calendar, its pages skipping back and forth. All until it landed on September the 1st. “Is a few days before you and me met. Or, to put it literally, I saved your ass from Talon agents looking for you.”

Gabriel pushed away from where he leant against the window and turned his back on the hacker. It was obvious that Sombra would not be taking the hint today or any other days in the future, and he blamed it entirely on the loss of Los Muertos. What really made his heart race however was the fact he recognized the anger and mistrust in her voice, recognized it as though he would recognize an old friend that he had never truly forgotten.

He had hoped he would never hear it thrown his way again but even that had been a foolish thing to wish for. A stupid, youthful, foolish thing.

Gabriel gritted his teeth and closed his eyes. “Need to see a doctor for this injury. We’ll talk later.”

Sombra may not be willing to let it go, but neither was he willing to risk anything that would turn her against him completely. He had been alone for so long with only her as his one constant, there was no way, just no way…

He limped towards the door and allowed Sombra’s silence to be her answer towards him. She at least wasn’t trying to stop him and for that he was grateful, if not a little sore at the sting that left deep in his chest.

It felt like mentoring Genji and Jesse all over again.

He had failed that too.

When he had finally left Sombra did the one thing she could think of doing: she threw her translocator at the nearest wall, with a force that made the thin walls of the safehouse shake. It rebounded and hit the siren’s shoulder, bouncing off to land spectacularly in the creature’s lap as though it had been planned all along to the very last detail.

The siren answered by merely opening her eyes wearily, a frown on her lips. “Must you humans be so aggressive in everything you do?”

Sombra didn’t bother responding in any other way but jerking her head towards the door. “Get up. We’ve got things to do.”

* * *

 

 **W** idowmaker watched as the hacker in front of her aggressively pressed against the oncoming crowd of civilians walking past them in Dorado. She wasn’t quite sure how long they had been walking but the sweat on her brow didn’t seem to be leaving anytime soon, nor the soreness she could feel on the very soles of her feet. Wherever they were going the other woman seemingly wanted to get there as soon as possible, completely ignoring the looks they were receiving from others around them.

When she voiced that to Sombra the hacker stopped and turned to glare at her. “Not everyone sees a blue woman every day, just grin and bear it, alright? We’re almost at the turning.”

“To what?” Widowmaker asked, holding back the urge to speak in her natural tongue to see if people had ever been enchanted by a siren’s voice before.

The streets of Dorado were enchanting to look at. For years she had only caught glimpses of what lay above her, a gaggle of people that worked from day to night in a city that had loved them in its own, extraneous way. Now the city looked anything but peaceful, its inhabitants like ants against the opposing monolith that was LumeriCo, scurrying this way and that and refusing to look at the large, illuminated ‘L’ that lingered at the corner of their eyes no matter where they were.

They were no exception to that. LumeriCo’s headquarters could be seen from everywhere, a watchful guardian that left many resentful. It was so utterly mechanical in comparison to the other buildings that surrounded it that resentment didn’t surprise Widowmaker in the slightest. It was an alien in the eyes of the people, a cold, foreign business in a sea of pink-patched roofs and homely, hospitable smells.

She, like LumeriCo, didn’t truly belong here and yet here they both were, looking in at the humans were so very wary of them.

Before she could look any closer at the rows of stores that they had just passed, Widowmaker felt herself jolted to the side as Sombra tugged at her hand and pulled her down another side street and away from the crowd. It was dark and it took a while for her eyes to adjust but when they did so Widowmaker could already see that something was incredibly wrong: the garbage pails had been tossed over, one by one, as if swept away by a great wind or…

“LumeriCo really wants you, don’t they sirena?” Sombra interrupted her thoughts with a nasty grin, tugging her forward so that she was in front.

“Tch, they would not find me in these garbage things, now would they?”

“No but they’re looking for traces of you and that, my blue friend, is while they’ll look for anything. Even if it is, admittedly, in the worst place.” Sombra finished this statement by languidly rolling one of the pails with a kick of her foot, chuckling when it banged loudly against one of the walls. “Keep moving forward, we’re almost there.”

“Again,” Widowmaker said with a roll of her eyes, “ _where_ is there?”

Sombra, seemingly having had enough of her constant questions, grabbed her hand and with an exaggerated groan started to tug her down the alleyway. Her grip only tightened when Widowmaker tried to protest, leaving the siren no other choice but to pick up her speed so that she didn’t end up face-first in the mud.

After a while her surroundings seemed to become familiar, supposedly to the point it showed on her face when Sombra glanced back behind her with a smug grin.

“Hey sirena,” Sombra said, a glint in her eye that instantly made Widowmaker’s back tense up. “Don’t vomit.”

“What?”

Widowmaker felt her stomach, to describe it in no simpler terms, turn itself _upside down_ as the alleyway she and Sombra had been in was swallowed up by a blimp of purple light.

It felt like she was being torn apart, piece by piece, and then stitched haphazardly back together again by a hyperactive maniac who didn’t know what the word ‘care’ even meant. And her insides? She doubted they were even still there and with a terrified (though if asked she would correct them and say ‘annoyed’) noise Widowmaker reached out for something, anything that would stop her from spiralling out of control.

When she opened her eyes, not realizing she had even closed them, Widowmaker discovered that ‘something’ was the hacker’s bicep. Said bicep quickly turning red under her formidable grip.

“I’m…” She paused in her apology, feeling her stomach lurch. “I’m going to be sick.”

Beside her Sombra let out a groan. “Ugh, fine. Just,” the hacker prodded at the siren’s cheek to turn it in the opposite direction, “do it out there.”

Moments after she had finished heaving, Widowmaker took a step back, eyes wide at how the alley she had just been in was now…

The place she was looking down at.

She whipped around and watched as the hacker watched her, a grin on her face and a round device in her hand that she threw up in the air again and again until she inevitably dropped it, cursed and picked it up from the floor.

Widowmaker glanced at it, confused. “How…”

“It transports our atoms and shit to the location I throw this thing at,” Sombra answered brusquely, already turning to walk into the small kitchenette at the very back of the room. “Remember where we are?”

Widowmaker had already been trying to understand the information Sombra had just shot at when the hacker had spoken again, robbing her thoughts away to focus on her surroundings.

She took in the bloodied armchair and how the stuffing had been torn out of the fabric, the overturned table and chairs that caused Sombra to tip-toe around it, the medicine kit that Gabriel had been fussing with before and the door to the bedroom that was now wide open.

“We’re back at your home.”

“Yep. Nice what Guillermo’s goons have done to the place, huh?” Sombra responded, now on her knees by a huge metal square while she tried to grab something underneath it. “Or Talon. Either way they really must have found where we live while they were attacking Diego and the rest of Los Muertos.”

Widowmaker kept her mouth firmly closed on that issue. She knew she wanted to say of course, but from the way Gabriel and Sombra had been arguing this morning she didn’t want to get involved in anymore human related issues for the rest of her time spent up on the surface. However long that turned out to be…

She glanced back over at the other woman, eyes drifting towards the curve of Sombra’s spine and then further down over the outline of her backside, and the way it obscenely moved as the hacker struggled with her attempts to get whatever was under the black box. Widowmaker had thought the cyborg to be something of interest beforehand because of the cybernetic work that was so abundantly obvious about her, but to find herself drawn to features of the woman that was human…

She shook her head and turned away to stare out of the window. The surface world was getting to her and making her feel ridiculous.

“Why…” Ugh, and now her voice was dry. “Why do you not simply move the black box?”

“Black box...It’s a fucking oven, azul.” Sombra responded in such a snarky way that Widowmaker almost forgot whatever the feeling was that had erupted in her at seeing Sombra’s assets and prepared to give her the verbal backlashing she deserved. Yet that too vanished as quickly as it had come at the sound of the ‘oven’ (whatever that was) being scraped forward and Sombra’s sound of delight at being able to get whatever she was after.

When she looked to see what that was her eyes widened. “A folder?”

“Yep.”

“Does this…” She hesitated. What she had heard this morning had nothing to do with her, but she couldn’t deny that she was curious about Gabriel and the past he was so clearly hiding from the both of them. “Does this have something to do with Gabriel?”

Sombra paused in opening the manila folder up, a static-laced finger tapping against one of the folds. “Maybe.”

“So yes.” Widowmaker prodded, mind racing in an attempt to understand on what this human who looked like a cyborg but was still rather irritably human, would do next. “Does he know you have information about him? The way you spoke this morning—”

“Look!” Sombra interrupted and Widowmaker recognized that look. It had been the same one Sombra had thrown at her when she had placed her entire fist in the gaping wound when they had conversed about Los Muertos. “It’s got nothing to do with you, alright? If I was you I’d jump back in that big, blue ocean out there and swim as far as your mermaid-tail like thing could carry you or something.”

Widowmaker growled. Two could play at this game. “It has everything to do with me! If that human friend of yours has a connection with me then I have a right to know what that connection is!”

“Oh you think so? So, this what you’re staying around for, huh?” And there it was; that irritable smirk that Widowmaker was almost afraid she would see considering the rage that flared up inside of her every time she caught sight of it. That rage only got bigger the moment the hacker turned away, folder now opened in her hands. “Well if I see anything worth knowing, I’ll let you…”

“I do not have memories like the rest of you do!” Widowmaker yelled, ignoring the pinch of embarrassment she felt already at her outburst. “They are scattered and jagged and incomplete! I-I don’t know how you humans work, but if Gabriel knows things about me then maybe I could…” She cut herself off, that pinch suddenly swelling until it felt like there a lump in her throat that made it hard to breathe. “You have lost a family and I do not understand why you care about them as much as you do and that is something I also do not understand.” Again she paused, watching out of the corner of her eye how the other woman turned, a lone brow arched in curiosity. “I do not understand why I don’t care about the things others do.”

Widowmaker didn’t speak again. She didn’t think it would be possible to at any rate, not when it had become so clear to her that what she had just done, exposed herself in a way she had never done before…

It had been all very human. A disgusting comparison if she had ever heard of one, but she couldn’t deny the truth, nor how it settled so heavily at the pit of her stomach as though an anchor rested there.

She sighed and rubbed at her forehead. “I—”

The folder being slapped into her hands caused her to suddenly fall still, motionless in everything but her eyes as she looked up to see that the cyborg was only a few feet away from her, arms crossed behind the back of her head. She looked as though she was about to go into her usual torrent of speech that boiled down to her usual theatrics, but this time when Sombra spoke Widowmaker’s mouth clamped shut.

“Here. Knock yourself out,” Sombra didn’t seem able to say a sentence that didn’t have some deflective tactic stuck on it, “it’s not got a lot on you from what I’ve seen of it. If anything on you actually—”

“You’ve not read it before now?” Widowmaker interrupted.

“Nope. Didn’t collect the data either, got a drone to get everything it could for me and then print it out like they did back when paper actually meant something.” Sombra turned to pick up a couple of chairs that had been pushed over in the ransacking, righting them both before she sat on the first with her heels perched on the kitchen cabinet next to her. “It’s no big deal. I didn’t think I’d even look at them to be honest, but with things how they are lately…” She paused. “I’ve got no idea why I’m telling you this. Maybe because you don’t give a shit, like you said.”

“I wish…”

“Giving a shit is overrated. Giving a shit means you get sloppy with your work and inevitably everything around you goes down the toilet.” Sombra snapped and Widowmaker wondered briefly if they were even talking about the same thing anymore.

She looked down at the folder and tentatively opened it.

The first thing she saw was a picture. It looked to be some sort of ceremony, chairs stacked together in one huge semi-circle, a table in front with a cake and candles. Gabriel Reyes was at the centre of it all, an exaggerated pout on his face that looked as ridiculous as the red, pointy hat that was strapped to his head. He was surrounded by a group of people whose names had been marked in the corner of the photograph, pinpointing their exact location in the picture.

The closest one, with an arm around Gabriel’s shoulders and grinning against the side of his face was labelled as Jesse McCree. He looked like a cartoon-based villain, his dark clothes and that lop-sided grin and that ridiculous hat.

And the…thing next to him. It looked more like an omnic than a human. Perhaps it was? Genji Shimada, or so the omnic’s name was, looked angry at his picture being taken if his strained smile was anything to go by. He had a rage in his eyes that made her pause, finger running over the dark brown and wondering if that was what she had looked like when she had spotted her very first meal.

She scanned the rest before Sombra, having seemingly reached her limit on patience, reached over and grabbed the picture from her, slapping it on the table.

Her finger was pressed over one person, this one being embraced by a lean man with a pencilled moustache and a huge grin – his hands ruffling the woman’s blonde curls.

Widowmaker stared at the name that was written above her.

“That is Angela Ziegler?”

“Yep, the one Gabe doesn’t know.” Sombra responded with a bitter laugh, shoving the picture halfway across the table with a flick of her wrist. “Or at least didn’t mention he knew. But hey, that’s Gabe for you.”

Widowmaker remained silent for a moment, unable to look away from the woman in the circle that seemed to hold something against Talon and LumeriCo that made her valuable. Something that made Gabriel want to know where she was, something that made Sombra look as though she had been utterly betrayed at not being told anything of her.

‘She is a woman that seems to know everything,’ Widowmaker thought to herself, eyes moving to examine the hacker’s now tensed jaw, ‘it is no wonder that this not knowing would infuriate her. Even if the person truly keeping it hidden from her was herself.’

For all her bravado about not giving a damn about anyone, Widowmaker could sense that the human side of Sombra was just as susceptible to caring and feeling hurt than she would ever let on.

She wouldn’t bring it up, of course. As much as she liked parading her own superiority, even if she did not rightly understand why she liked doing so, Widowmaker had had enough of arguing with the hacker to last her for weeks.

Instead, she met the hacker’s eyes and shrugged. “You did not ask him if he knew the doctor.”

Sombra scoffed. “Yeesh, you’re gonna defend him now? I was expecting a rant about how stupid all humans are for even trusting one another in the first place.”  The hacker paused and Widowmaker watched as she rested her chin in the palm of her hand, staring at nothing as she continued to speak. “You’re right though, sirena. You’re right. I already knew that when I was a kid, but since Gabe…”

Sombra trailed off. Yet before Widowmaker could think of thinking any deeper about what the hacker had said she was suddenly staring straight at her, brow furrowed and her lower lip resting between her clenched teeth. She looked like she had just stepped in something awful.

The other woman shook her head. “God, those clothes are fucking hanging off you.”

Widowmaker stared down at herself, more confused than ever. “Quoi?”

“Y’know, your wings last night. Really tore up those clothes and all.”

Widowmaker scoffed. And to think Sombra had accused _her_ of not being good at small talk. “What does it matter?

“What does it matter?” Sombra looked insulted. “Go into my room – or what’s left of it – and find something to wear. As for that…” She moved towards her and without warning, grabbed the folder and tucked it into the inner pocket of her coat. “Finders keeps, siren. Now go get changed.”

Widowmaker bit her lip to stop herself from falling to the human standard of spewing profanities at the other woman. Instead she rolled her eyes and slowly slinked her way out of the kitchen, past the trashed ‘living’ quarters and into the single bedroom.

It was just as trashed as the rest of the apartment and, yet it didn’t make finding clothes any easier.

When she had finished and left the bedroom, Widowmaker saw that Sombra had gone to the window and was peering out at the transitioning grey sky that covered Dorado today. She looked as sullen as the clouds and it shocked her, not that she would ever admit it, that seeing the other woman lacking her usual breezy attitude made her feel…bloated.

She inwardly hissed. The human language was so stupid sometimes, they never had the right words to describe how she felt.

In her reflection, Widowmaker failed to notice what the hacker was doing. Yet when she got closer she paused, head tilted to the side to listen to a faint noise that she could hear coming from deeper within the city.

“Is that…”

“Music? Yeah.” Sombra said, glancing over her shoulder at her. Her eyes widened for a moment at seeing the striped black and white shirt and ridiculously tight jeans (skinnies? That’s what the label had said) she was wearing but looked away straight after, suddenly finding interest once more in the sky. “It’s that uh, Lucio guy, you know? The one who’s music I illegally torrent?”

“Do you do anything legally?”

“Nope.” Sombra grinned and for a moment Widowmaker thought she saw something familiar in her face. It felt…

Different.

Widowmaker cleared her throat and glanced at the spot over the other woman’s shoulder. “What is a torrent?”

“You know what?” Sombra said with a snort, shrugging her shoulders and laughing. “It doesn’t even matter.”

Widowmaker let out a noise that she could only describe as disbelieving as she slowly joined Sombra at the window, eyes closing against her will at the sound that was by no means soothing in terms of beat, but the rhythm and the sweetness behind each tune was nothing to shy away from. It was beautiful and, this is what frustrated her the most, human.

But not only that – the music silenced the bustle of city life and allowed a few moments where fear of the overlords that LumeriCo represented no longer felt so huge. It made the world stop, even if only for a mere second.

Widowmaker couldn’t help but push her head out of the window, a strange longing in her chest that yearned ardently to hear more.

“That music,” she whispered, bracing herself against the ledge of the windowpane. “It sounds close by."

“It’s probably on someone’s laptop or something—”

“No, no I can hear it from somewhere below!” Widowmaker interrupted, leaning out completely with only a single leg placed on the floor behind to steady her. “That man you mentioned, that Lucio? Is he here?”

Sombra sighed. “Why the hell would Lucio be here?”

Widowmaker responded by blindly grabbing Sombra by the scruff of her jacket, pulling the hacker towards her until she was pressed against her back, bent over in the most uncomfortable way imaginable.

“Your device.” She said quickly, looking over at Sombra. “Throw it. I wish to see.”

Sombra quirked a brow at her in disbelief. Widowmaker responded with an insistent gesture of her head. The hacker shook her head and fumbled for her translocator in her pockets.

There was something about the music that called to Widowmaker, and she would do anything – even risk walking right out in these busy streets – to find the source of it.

“3, 2, 1…” She heard behind her and then, with a flash of numbers and text, they were suddenly just behind the small café they had passed on their way to the apartment.

Widowmaker grabbed Sombra’s shoulder to steady herself, shaking off the dizzy spell to glare at the smirking hacker next to her. Sombra only shrugged in response before grabbing her wrist, pulling her once more into the maze of streets that lined Dorado’s town centre.

It didn’t take long for them to follow the music to the destination, but when they got there Sombra pushed her into a small alcove in the street, mouth agape and eyes wide.

“Sirena,” she whispered, “that’s actually Lucio Correia Dos Santos RIGHT fucking there!”

Widowmaker looked over Sombra’s shoulder. “Him?”

Further down the road she saw the man whom Sombra’s eyes simply could not leave. He had the look of a musician Widowmaker supposed, from what little she knew about them, and there was indeed music coming from somewhere around him –

Widowmaker’s eyes narrowed in disbelief. “He has a thing, a music thing, that is making something on his legs pump up and down.”

“It’s a speaker, Widowmaker.”

She scoffed. “Whatever it is called!”

What made him stand out beyond his appearance however, was that a group of small children surrounded him. It was not unusual to see children of course, Widowmaker had seen more than enough of the little brats during her time in Dorado’s waters, but to see them simply sitting still, listening to the music like there was no other trouble in the world…

They were so very different from the children that had thrown rocks into the sea to joke with their friends that they would call up the Siren of Dorado to eat them. They looked hopeful, rather than scared in the face of the unknown.

Widowmaker craned her neck to the side to look at them further. “They…”

“Look happy.” Sombra said, her voice quiet enough that Widowmaker glanced over at her, a sliver of something light and treacherous settling in her stomach at the small smile that was on the other woman’s face. Like her, Sombra didn’t seem unable to stop staring at them. It was like they had never seen children before, or at the very least, had not seen them like this for a very long time.

Widowmaker looked down at her hands, placed without a care in the world on the cyborg’s waist. Her fingers were long, slim and gangly and Sombra was just so…

She pulled away as though burned and made it a point to ignore the confused look it drew from the hacker. What a perilous choice of action, and with so little space between them? The hacker would get other ideas – frivolous, human ideas about the Siren of Dorado that Widowmaker couldn’t stomach to think about.

Widowmaker bit her lip and looked away.

And turned Sombra around by her shoulder moments later, finger pointed towards a limping figure, clad in black.

“Is that…”

The cyborg pushed past her and scrambled towards the figure, promptly ignoring the high-pitched yelps of the children that she dashed past, scattering them. It was only when she was right in front of the stranger did she stop, arms outstretched to catch them and slowly lower them to the ground.

It was only when Sombra turned the stranger over did Widowmaker see who stared back at her.

Gabriel, his face pained and bloody.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> P.O.V change to Gabriel next chapter. At least for some of it.
> 
> It'll definitely be done A LOT sooner than this recent chapter. However, I am involved in the Spiderbyte zine, so be sure to look out for my work there!


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